


The Spark

by Sparky_07



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, F/F, F/M, Ginny Weasley-centric, M/M, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2019-10-08 12:09:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17386205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparky_07/pseuds/Sparky_07
Summary: Ginny couldn't help but tune out from Umbridge's incessant voice, opting to look around the Gryffindor table instead. She spotted a miserable looking Dennis Creevey and remembered that his brother, Colin, had died in the battle. Next to him was Skylar Madsen, a sixth year who Ginny remembered from the DA. Sky was watching Umbridge with a frown, her hand toying with the knife on her plate. There were some other familiar faces, but many fewer than there should have been.ORVoldemort wins the Battle of Hogwarts, and Ginny is forced to return to the school for her seventh year. Dumbledore's Army reunites with Ginny in the lead, and then the metaphorical shit hits the proverbial fan.





	1. Goin’ Back to Hogwarts

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic, and I've had this chapter written for a while but was too scared to post it. I have another full chapter and a third is almost finished, but I wanted to post them at fairly regular intervals, so I'll probably wait a week or so before posting the next one. Still, if you like the fic, just ask me to post the second chapter and I'll happily comply. It does get better - hopefully - and I think this first chapter is probably the worst out of what I've written, so please don't judge. Also, I'm American and I'm trying to use some British terminology in this, so if I use a word incorrectly please tell me. And if anyone knows how to get things to be italicized in ao3, I would greatly appreciate that information. Inspiration for this fic goes to kcthekat's "The Sacred 28" which is a beautiful work of art that is much better than my own writing.

“Kill.”

Severus heard the Parseltongue being spoken, saw the snake rising to strike, and he found within himself a sudden calm as he realized that he was about to die. The world slowed around him, and he was acutely aware of Nagini’s painstaking descent toward his neck. 

Nagini. 

The name struck a chord somewhere inside him, and Dumbledore’s voice echoed in the back of his mind.

“There will come a time when Lord Voldemort will seem to fear for the life of his snake.”

Nagini struck. Severus could hear himself screaming, could feel himself drop to the floor.

“I regret it,” said Voldemort, showing no sign of remorse in his skeletal face. He turned on his heel, lifting Nagini’s enchanted cage from Severus’s bleeding form.

The snake, Severus thought, understanding everything all at once. Nagini must die.

He forced his wand hand up, trembling as it pointed toward the snake that followed behind Voldemort’s retreating back. For Lily.

“Tenebris flammae.”

He spoke softly, but with more conviction than ever before. Fiendfyre burst from his wand, hurtling at Voldemort with a great whoosh of flame. The Dark Lord spun around with incredible speed, raising his wand just in time to project an impenetrable magical buffet around him. Nagini was not so fortunate.

The cursed fire flickered and then dissipated, as Severus no longer had the strength to control it. He felt a tear rolling down his cheek, not for his own fate but for the fate of the woman he had loved. Perhaps she could forgive him now.

Voldemort’s scream of rage as he saw the blackened husk of his former Horcrux seemed to shake the very walls around them. Severus had fallen limp, presumably dead. Voldemort could inflict no more punishment upon his once-faithful servant. He left after a moment, Dark energy radiating from him in warning to any foolish enough to dare approach him.

Severus heard footsteps nearing his prone body, and he forced his eyes open to find Potter leaning over him, his two cohorts looking on from behind.

“Take . . . it . . . Take . . . it . . .” Severus managed to say, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing more tears to fall. The memories began to flow, fast and hard; perhaps this was the meaning of having one’s life flash before their eyes. He was vaguely aware of the substance now leaking from his mouth and ears as well.

Potter was collecting it, taking the memories that he had long deserved to know. Severus felt satisfied. At last, his job was done. But suddenly he was gripped by an irrational fear. He might not see her ever again. Might not belong where she did.

“Look . . . at . . . me,” he choked out. Harry Potter met his gaze.

For a single, glorious moment, Severus looked deep into the green eyes of Lily Evans.

 

~~~~~~~

 

Voldemort came to, brushing Bellatrix away as he stood.

“I do not require assistance,” he said coldly, ignoring her proffered hand. She drew back respectfully, and his gaze turned to the boy. Harry Potter was lying flat against the ground, looking like Death himself - his face was pressed to the forest floor and his arm jutted out unnaturally from his side. But Voldemort needed verification, absolute proof that this child who had escaped so many times before was finally and truly gone.

Yet he could trust no one, not with Nagini gone now, for she was his last tie to the eternal life that he so longed for. A sudden sense of vulnerability washed over Voldemort, and he was filled with terrifying paranoia. He could die.

He gave the Elder Wand a sharp flick, sending a jet of translucent light toward the boy. A moment of suspense followed, and the very air seemed to cease its movements in anticipation. Then the unimaginable happened: Voldemort sensed Potter’s heartbeat, pounding steadily - if not rather quickly - in his chest.

The killing curse was on the tip of Voldemort’s tongue in a moment, but something held him back. Again, that rush of fear. He always lost. The boy had given himself up willingly, yet here he was: alive and well.

The Elder Wand twitched indecisively in the Dark Lord’s hand. After a moment:

“Harry Potter has been defeated!” he announced. “He lives -”

There was an outbreak of muttering, and most of the Death Eaters seemed caught somewhere between disbelief, fear, and anger.

“- And he will stay alive as punishment,” continued Voldemort, heedless of his doubtful followers, “Forced to watch his loved ones die.”

At this, the boy sprang up at last, his wand in hand. Years of magical training took over, and instinct prompted Voldemort to disarm Potter. As he did, a sudden rush of power filled him.

Little did he know that the wand he wielded was finally accepting its new master.

 

~~~~~~~

 

Ginny fought back tears as her father embraced her. She could see the cranberry red of the Hogwarts Express over his shoulder, but the color was blood-like to her haunted eyes. Just a year ago, she would have pulled away from her parents' goodbye hugs to run onto the Express in excitement. Now, she felt like throwing up at the sight of it. Her father held her back at arm’s length and looked at her sadly.

"You're all grown up now," he said quietly. "Your mother would be so proud." 

Ginny forced a smile.

"It'll be alright," her father murmured. “Just . . . be safe."

Ginny nodded, the lump in her throat impeding her voice. She stepped away from her father and toward the train.

"I'll be okay," she managed gruffly.

"Gin!"

She turned in amazement at the sound of her brother's voice. He had hardly spoken all summer.

"Be careful, okay? I can't lose someone else."

Ginny looked at George and an understanding seemed to pass between the two. His eyes reflected the pain in her own, and she knew that he was feeling every death at that moment as acutely as she was. She felt a sudden conviction to make the people who had done this pay.

"I'll say hi to Peeves for you," she said.

"Do that," answered George, moving closer so that their father couldn't hear. "And," he muttered softly, "Give them hell from us." Ginny felt a bag being pressed into her hand.

"Will do . . . Forge."

A ghost of a smile flickered over George's face, and then Ginny turned quickly and grabbed her trunk as the train's whistle blew.

 

~~~~~~~~

 

She made her way through the train, ignoring the hostile glares that followed her. Ginny was well aware of the repercussions of being Harry's ex-girlfriend. It was a good thing that he had broken up with her, in retrospect, since she would probably be dead if he hadn’t. Voldemort's ignorance in the matter ensured her safety from being hunted down like Ron and Hermione. 

Her thoughts turned to the two of them, and she wondered if they were with Bill and Fleur, tucked away safely in Shell Cottage. Ever since Floo Powder had been banned, communication with Bill and the rest of the Order had become nigh on impossible, what with owls being searched and the entourage of Death Eaters that followed her father around the clock. 

Ginny snapped out of her reverie as she saw Luna sitting by herself in a compartment. The blonde looked up and gave a dreamy smile, beckoning Ginny in. Ginny slid open the compartment door and plopped onto the seat across from Luna with a sigh.

"Had a good summer?" asked Luna mildly.

"Just great," Ginny snapped back, her voice layered with sarcasm.

"Okay," said Luna, shrugging slightly as she picked up one of her ever-present Quibbler editions.

"Sorry," Ginny remedied quickly. "I've just been a bit on edge ever since the battle."

"Could be the Wrackspurts," Luna responded sagely as she put on a pair of Spectrespecs.

Ginny felt a real laugh bubbling up in her throat, but she managed to suppress it, simply nodding in agreement.

 

~~~~~~~~ 

 

The Sorting Hat had no song to sing, nor even a few heartfelt words of advice. It simply sat on its stool unmovingly - but if it was possible for a hat to look angry, Ginny would have sworn that it was silently fuming at that moment. The sorting itself was a brief affair, most of the first years going to Slytherin with relieved sighs. Gryffindor received a dismal total of three new students, all of whom looked much smaller and more fragile than Ginny could ever remember being herself.

Umbridge gave a lengthy speech about the mercy that the Dark Lord was showing by allowing everyone of wizarding descent to continue with their education (she gave a pointed look toward the Gryffindor table). Then, she branched out into an explanation of the necessity of preventing Muggleborns from entering the wizarding world.

Ginny couldn't help but tune out from Umbridge's incessant voice, opting to look around the Gryffindor table instead. She spotted a miserable looking Dennis Creevey and remembered that his brother, Colin, had died in the battle. Next to him was Skylar Madsen, a sixth year who Ginny remembered from the DA. Sky was watching Umbridge with a frown, her hand toying with the knife on her plate. There were some other familiar faces, but many fewer than there should have been.

Ginny tore her eyes from her peers as Umbridge ended her speech to a smattering of applause, mostly from the Slytherins. With a little glare at the other tables, the headmistress waved her hand, and food appeared in heaping piles. Ginny practically leapt at it in her eagerness. During the summer, her father had come to realize that he did not possess the ability to perform even the simplest of Cooking Charms, as had George and herself. They had survived on a diet that consisted mainly of soup and bread. Ginny shuddered slightly at the thought as she helped herself to a plentiful amount of potatoes and steak.

By the time the food had disappeared and Umbridge had sent them off to bed, Ginny felt full to bursting. One thing that she didn't share with her brother Ron was his stomach’s enormous capacity. She trudged up the stairs to the Fat Lady, following a line of slow-moving Gryffindors. When they reached the top at last, someone said the password - Bloodline - and everyone sluggishly filed into the common room. No one seemed to want to speak, so they all retreated to their respective dormitories. Ginny fell asleep as soon as she laid down.

 

~~~~~~~

 

The next morning, Ginny looked over her timetable in horror, seeing that she was saddled with both Muggle Studies and DADA for the day. Amycus Carrow had died in the Battle of Hogwarts, so naturally they had replaced his position as Defense professor with another Death Eater: Dolohov.

With a groan, Ginny tucked her timetable away and began to viciously attack the eggs on her plate with the prongs of her fork. Breakfast was a quick affair, and the Hall was unusually silent. The food tasted strangely bland, and she wondered if the house-elves were rebelling in their own small way. As she got up from the table to leave, she spotted Dennis Creevey waving her over.

“Hi,” she said once she had made her way to him. “Awful summer?”

"That about sums it up, yeah. But that’s not the point,” he said, before looking around perfunctorily and lowering his voice. “Are we doing the DA again?" he asked. He sounded almost excited, and she shifted uncomfortably under his hopeful gaze.

"Er. . . I'm not sure. Neville was kind of the leader."

"But you and Luna were basically in charge too!" he said eagerly.

"I don't know. It would be really dangerous, and I doubt I'd be any good at leading." Dennis looked so crestfallen that she quickly added, "But I can talk to Luna if you want."

He brightened considerably and said, "Thanks a bunch. I think a lot of people would be interested in joining."

"Yeah, okay. Well, I have to go to class now." Ginny hurried off and pondered what Dennis had said throughout Care of Magical Creatures, where Professor Grubbly-Plank was explaining how to safely hold a Demiguise - the one she was demonstrating with disappeared halfway through the lesson, resulting in a minor panic. When class ended, Ginny walked back to the castle and into the Muggle Studies classroom by instinct, still thinking about the DA.

"Paying attention, Weasley?"

Ginny's head snapped up, and she took in the sneering face of Alecto Carrow. 

"Yeah. I'm listening." Ginny packed the simple response with hatred. There was no love lost between her and Carrow.

"Good. As I was saying, Muggles are the reason that war even exists,” Alecto explained with conviction.

Most of the students were taking notes, but Alecto didn’t seem to mind that Ginny and several others were determinedly ignoring the empty parchment on their desks. She simply continued to lecture - and loudly, too - about the evil that was Muggles.

Ginny had been staring out the window for the better part of an hour, doing her best to block out Carrow’s voice, when she could at last stand it no longer.

“. . . and their weapons poison the air, which is bad for everyone. They’re very stupid, really.”

"Are you talking about Muggles or yourself?” Ginny couldn't contain the angry interruption, and the entire class went silent at her words. Alecto's face turned a violent shade of purple.

"Detention! During your next Defense class!"

Ginny didn't complain, but simply threw Alecto a look of utmost loathing before turning back to the window.

 

~~~~~~

 

After what felt like an unreasonably short amount of time, Ginny was headed toward her last class of the day. She practically dragged her feet across the floor as she found herself nearing the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. She had received detention several times in the past year, but she had a feeling that Snape had always kept the Carrows in check to a certain degree. She doubted that Umbridge would do any such thing.

She walked into the classroom, hoping her fear didn't show. She noticed Alecto standing with Dolohov at the front of the class, and forced her face to remain expressionless. She felt a sudden bout of apparently unprecedented regret as she recalled a past incident involving herself, Alecto, and a spontaneous explosion.

"Weasley," Dolohov greeted her with a dangerous smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Antonin," responded Ginny amicably.

Dolohov appeared to be struggling with himself in an effort to remain calm. Ginny looked on innocently, but with a grin tugging at the edge of her mouth. Antagonizing Death Eaters was a dangerous but highly amusing sport, and Ginny indulged in it with fervor. Besides, she reasoned with herself, she was already receiving detention, so infuriating him didn't have any real consequences.

"Come to the front of the class," said Dolohov, his voice strained. Ginny stepped forward with a sigh as if to say, Let's just get this over with. She hoped the fear didn't show through her facade of Gryffindor bravado.

"Harper, Vaisey, Avery, come up here." 

The three students practically ran up at Dolohov’s call. Ginny noticed the Inquisitorial Squad badges pinned to their robes.

"Now," Alecto spoke, and the students turned toward her obediently. "This girl - Ginevra Weasley - insulted me today. This is unacceptable." she paused expectantly, and the students nodded quickly in agreement. "You three are in charge of her punishment. Use the Cruciatus until you are told to stop."

This was the same speech as last year, and the students simply pulled out their wands, giving the professors an expectant look.

"Begin."

Ginny heard the curse being cast and attempted to relax her body. Suddenly, she was wracked with pain, and she struggled to remain standing. She knew full well that her pain was minuscule compared to the anguish that an experienced wizard could bring with the curse, but it still hurt beyond anything she had ever felt before. 

They've been practicing, she thought grimly. It was all she could do not to cry out, and she felt her legs give way beneath her and heard the loud thump of her body hitting the floor.

"Enough."

The pain stopped as suddenly as it had come, and Ginny looked up, breathing hard.

"Again."

Ginny fell back, writhing. She bit her tongue in a desperate effort not to scream, and she felt tears rise to her eyes. It went on for what seemed like an eternity until the delighted cackling of Dolohov and the panting of the students above her sounded distant and muffled. Spots swam in her vision before they were obscured by an intense black.

 

~~~~~~~

 

Her first thought was of how sore she felt. A dull ache coursed through her body, but she was too weak to react. She slowly opened her eyes and let them adjust to the blinding light around her. The Hospital Wing came into focus under her gaze, and a white-clad Madam Pomfrey bustled into view. The portly little matron turned and saw Ginny watching her.

"Oh, good. You're awake," Madam Pomfrey said, moving over to Ginny's bed and checking her pulse.

"How long was I out?" asked Ginny with a groan.

"Let's see . . . About 13 hours now."

"That's just great." Ginny flopped down onto her pillow with a sigh. "I don't suppose I can go to class today?"

"Actually, I was given specific instructions to dismiss you from the Hospital Wing as soon as you woke." Madam Pomfrey said the words with a look reminiscent of a person drinking acid. She lowered her voice and added, "You shouldn't antagonize them, you know."

Ginny bit back a retort and gave a slight nod.

"Good. Well, I suppose you should leave now."

"Yeah." Ginny pushed herself into a sitting position, groaning as a jolt of pain traveled down her spine. She managed to stand and wobbled to the door with Madam Pomfrey's help. After a moment's difficulty, she made it through the doorway and began to walk unsteadily down the hall with her hands pressed against the wall for support. As she entered the Great Hall, several heads turned toward her, and she saw a few people muttering to each other as they pointed to her. So this is how Harry feels, she thought.

Doing her best to ignore the people around her, Ginny turned her gaze to the High Table. Her eyes glinted with anger at the sight of Alecto and Dolohov smirking down at her, and it was all she could do not to curse them on the spot. The ache in her back reminded her of every reason not to do just that.

Ginny looked away and walked to the Gryffindor table, doing her best not to stumble. A few people looked at her in awe as she sat down, but she pretended not to notice. At the end of breakfast, she saw Dennis Creevey fighting his way toward her through the mob of students leaving the Hall.

"Ginny!" he called to her, and she pushed her way forward through the crowd to meet him. "Ginny, are you okay?" his concern sounded genuine, but she doubted that he had pulled her over to ask after her health.

"Yeah. I'm fine, but - listen Dennis, if this is about the DA, I really don't know yet. I haven't had time to talk to Luna," Ginny said apologetically. They began to walk, following their peers into the hallway. Dennis offered his shoulder for support as Ginny stumbled, but she refused it despite her obvious need for assistance.

"No, it's not that. I mean, it is about the DA, but not the whole leadership thing. It's this." Dennis pulled something out of his pocket, and Ginny almost grinned as she recognized what he was holding. "It's one of the old DA Galleons. You know, the ones with the Protean Charm on them," Dennis explained needlessly.

"Yeah. I still have mine too. What about it?"

"Well, that's the thing!" said Dennis excitedly. "A bunch of people still have theirs! I've even been communicating with some of them! People want to fight, Ginny." his tone darkened. "We need to do something. Please."

"So you want me to call a meeting?" Ginny asked.

Dennis nodded. "I’d do it without you anyway, but . . . It wouldn’t feel right. And you’d probably hex us all if we met without you," he added with a grin.

Ginny looked back at the Great Hall, thinking of Dolohov and Carrow. She thought of their 'detentions,' and remembered the Dark Marks on their arms. And she thought of her brothers and her mum. "Okay, I'm in. We'll meet tonight in the Room of Requirement. At eight o’clock?”

Dennis smiled. "I'll be there."

"Alright. I'll send a message through the coins."

"Thank you," Dennis said simply. Then he rushed off to class.

 

~~~~~~

 

Ginny made it through the day without drawing any unwanted attention to herself, and managed to get to the dormitory before collapsing in a heap on her bed. After a few minutes, she pushed herself up and opened her trunk, rummaging around as she searched for her DA Galleon. Her hand touched something crinkly, and she pulled out the bag that George had given her on Platform 9 3/4. She opened it tentatively and peered in at its contents. Immediately noticing a note that sat at the top, she pulled it out, struggling to understand the sloppy writing. After a moment, she managed to decipher George’s scrawl, reading, Hey, Gin. Thought you’d like some toys to play with. Don’t worry: sensors won’t pick up on them. They’re ‘not dangerous.’ As if. Anyway, have fun!

Ginny glanced back into the bag, seeing the letters WWW emblazoned brightly on a small package. And then she gave a real smile for the first time since the battle.  
"I'm ready to give them hell," she whispered softly. "We all are."


	2. Not Over Yet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot figure out formatting and italicizing on this damn site, so heads up: things might look a bit off. Other than that, here is my second chapter, which I think is better than the first at least. Enjoy!

Ginny looked around nervously at the twenty or so people seated together in the Room of Requirement. They were all gazing up at her expectantly, and she knew they were waiting for her to speak. Dennis had called for a vote at the beginning of the meeting to decide upon who would lead them. The result had been almost unanimous in Ginny's favor, so she could only assume that Dennis had mentioned her merits to more than a few members of the DA. Now, everyone seemed to expect a speech from her, although she was at a complete loss for what to say. Still, she felt it her duty to say something, so she cleared her throat awkwardly and began.

"The DA was created to teach people Defense, but also to fight back," she said, speaking loudly despite the silence that filled the Room. "People joined because they wanted to take action. That's exactly what we're going to do this year. Just like last year, we're going to be playing pranks and writing stuff on the walls, and just doing whatever the hell we can to annoy Carrow and Umbridge - and let’s not forget to give Dolohov a good welcome, too."

A few people laughed at that, and Ginny relaxed a bit, giving a small half-smile. She saw Dennis sitting nearby and he caught her eye and gave her a thumbs-up. She took a deep breath and continued.

"We'll also be having Defense classes of course, so if anyone wants to help teach, just tell me -" here Ginny looked at the Ravenclaws pointedly "- And I'm also going to make some staff appointments right now," she added. "Dennis, you are now in charge of planning out the schedule of the DA. When we meet, when we strike - everything. You'll have to work around everyone's timetables, and it'll probably be pretty difficult. But I know that with your enthusiasm, you can do it."

Everyone laughed this time, and one of Dennis's friends elbowed him jokingly. Dennis flushed, but did look rather pleased to have such an important job.

"Luna," Ginny continued, and the blonde looked up in mild surprise. "You're job is to come up with strategies of where - and how - we attack."

A few people made noises of shock and turned to Luna, who was idly playing with her butterbeer cork necklace. Ginny scuffed her foot against the floor, drawing attention back to herself. 

"So does anyone have any questions?" she asked, trying to anticipate what people would want to know so that she could answer appropriately.

The room was silent. Everyone looked around to see if the people sitting near them were going to speak, but no one did. At last, as Ginny was about to move on, a small voice piped up from the back of the group.

"Is the DA part of the Order of the Phoenix?"

Ginny looked around for the source of the question, eventually identifying it as Alex Rindle, a third year Ravenclaw.

"Um . . . Well, the Order has to accept you for you to join, and they’ve stopped accepting anyone who's still in Hogwarts. Even if you're of age. I've talked to my da - to a member of the Order about joining, but he said no, it would be too dangerous, I'm still too young. But being young didn't stop our families from dying, did it?"

There was an angry murmur, but it seemed to be in agreement with her words. Ginny's voice grew stronger

"So no, we're not the Order. We're Dumbledore's Army!"

A cheer rose from the crowd and it sounded almost . . . happy? Ginny was struck with the sudden realization that what people really wanted in such dark times was a reason to hope. And the DA gave them that by letting them know that no matter what, there were still good guys out there. And they were still fighting.

 

~~~~~~

 

The meeting finished soon after her little speech, with only a small additional reminder of how to use the Galleons, and a few suggestions thrown around for the best ways to take revenge on Alecto, Dolohov, and Umbridge. Ginny decided that she would tell everyone about the bag that George had given her during their next meeting. As it was, there wasn't much time, what with the 9 o'clock curfew.

As Ginny made her way back to the Gryffindor common room, she remembered that Quidditch tryouts were coming up. To her surprise, she felt her nerves begin to act up at the thought of trying out for the team. Strangely, she felt happy for that. It was somehow wonderful that she could even think about Quidditch at a time like this. Her mood darkened slightly as she remembered that Demelza Robins was the new Gryffindor Captain. Last year, Ginny had held the captaincy, and she had been angered to find at the beginning of her current year that she had not been awarded the position again. She was aware of her skill in Quidditch - she was sometimes rather overconfident in it - so she knew that Demelza had only become captain due to Alecto and her grudge against her.

Ginny sighed and attempted to think of something that didn't involve Carrow, which naturally caused her thoughts to turn to Umbridge. The woman was a nightmare, perhaps worse than the Death Eater. Her sickly sweet attitude and small Hem-Hems sometimes made Ginny wish for the Cruciatus, and her endless supply of pink cardigans were rumored to be the cause of all the bouts of nausea that students experienced. She was also an extreme purist, although Ginny’s peers often whispered conspiratorially that her ancestors consisted mainly of frogs and not wizards. The old toad really had it coming, and Ginny realized suddenly that everyone in the DA was as desperate to see Umbridge humiliated as she was. She trusted the group to do all they could to infuriate the cat-loving hag. Ginny's staff appointments of Dennis and Luna had not been a biased choice based off of their friendships, but rather a practical one. She knew full well that Dennis would do anything in his power to help the organization, so she had placed the thankless task of scheduling on his shoulders with the knowledge that he would never complain or slack off. Luna was, in her opinion, an excellent choice for strategist. She was level-headed even in the most demanding situations, she had Ravenclaw smarts (despite what many might think), and Ginny knew that she was as loyal to the DA as anyone. Ginny smiled appreciatively at the thought of the two and walked the rest of the way to the Fat Lady with plans for the DA swirling around her mind.

When she reached the portrait, she muttered, "Bloodline," grudgingly. 

"I don't like it either, dearie," said the Fat Lady, her painting swinging open to reveal the common room. 

Ginny walked in and saw some of the other Gryffindors in the DA lounging around in the plush chairs nears the fireplace. At the end of the meeting, it had been agreed that everyone would leave in small groups of twos and threes to avoid attracting suspicion. Ginny had been the last to leave, and she realized now that her fellow Housemates had been waiting up to ensure her safe return.

As soon as they saw her, they stood up and shuffled off to their dormitories without a word. She gave a small smile of gratitude, although she wasn't sure that any of them saw, and then she, too, retired to her dormitory. She was far from tired, though, and she found herself pacing quietly, careful not to wake her roommates. Each step caused her pain, but she felt no compulsion to go to sleep, so she moved over to the window. She pressed her head against the glass pane, reveling in its coolness on her skin. Looking out, she was taken aback by the beauty of the scene before her. The lake shone in the moonlight, small ripples visible on its surface. The Forbidden Forest was also bathed in the faint light, and it possessed a haunting sort of beauty in the illumination. All was still, yet the grounds were filled with life. Ginny looked up at the stars which glowed softly against the stark backdrop of the night sky. She remembered Harry and those times that the two had snuck out after curfew under his invisibility cloak. They would lay outside, content to gaze up at the stars with only each other for company. Sometimes they would talk together about a range of topics from schoolwork to different ways to annoy Malfoy, but never anything meaningful. Most of the time, though, they were silent. The whispers of the trees and soft babbling of a nearby stream would fill the air, and a sense of peace would pervade the scene.

Harry is still alive, she reminded herself in response to the sadness welling up in her. And there’s a good chance that he’ll stay that way for a while to come. This was a reminder that Ginny constantly gave herself because it let her hope that Harry would live until the Order rescued him. She knew that the hope was reciprocated by most, but for an altogether different reason. People wanted the Chosen One to live so that he could defeat Voldemort at last. Ginny wanted Harry to live because she loved him.

 

~~~~~~~

 

School passed in a blur for the next few days, and Ginny was relieved to find that the remnants of pain from the Cruciatus were fading. Dennis was working hard to create a schedule that accommodated the majority of the DA members, but they had yet to have a second meeting. In fact, Ginny felt that the most exciting thing that had happened in the days since the first meeting had been Errol avoiding collapse as he landed in front of her. She had kept out of the way of Alecto and Dolohov, ignoring their taunts and jibes in favor of planning each and every way that the DA could ruin their lives. It was almost boring, especially with many of her old friends gone from Hogwarts. Relief came, however, in the form of Quidditch.

Ginny walked down to the Pitch, smiling despite her previous annoyance at the loss of the captaincy. She was thrilled to be flying again, and on a new broom no less. It was the broom that Fred and George had bought for her as a surprise when she was at Hogwarts last year. The twins had purchased it with some leftover money from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, and they had planned to give it to her at the beginning of the present school year. The two had wanted it to be a kind of initiation into her last year at Hogwarts. After Fred's death, however, George had simply pushed the broom toward her with a few words of explanation. Throughout the summer, Ginny hadn't had the heart to try it, but now she was ready. Or at least she told herself that. She was aware that she was repressing many of her emotions, but it was altogether too pleasant not to always have the dead half of her family at the forefront of her mind. They still came when she slept, though.

Her dreams always followed the same pattern: Fred fell first, dropping to the ground at the same time as it rose up to meet him. Then Mum fell, meeting her fate with her chin held high like a true Gryffindor. Charlie and Percy were last, swallowed up almost simultaneously while wearing identical expressions of grief and hatred.

Ginny turned her thoughts back to Quidditch in an almost forceful manner and found that she had arrived at the Pitch. She clutched her Nimbus 2000 tightly as she saw several people already lined up for tryouts, and she felt a trickle of sweat work its way down the back of her neck. Ginny knew she was easily good enough to handle the competition that stood in front of her, but she couldn't help her nerves from getting the better of her. It was her overconfidence that often did her in during matches of Quidditch at the Burrow, so she made no attempt to quell her fear.

Demelza saw Ginny and gave her an apologetic look before speaking. "Okay, guys. Beaters first."

As the beaters came forward and were sorted into two teams, Ginny had to admit that Demelza made a good captain. She was eyeing each potential team member appraisingly, and her voice carried an authoritative tone. Ginny felt a pang of regret as she realized that she hadn't so much as spoken to Demelza since the start of the school year, despite their shared dorm. She resolved to apologize as soon as tryouts were over, and turned back to watch the beaters play.

Beater tryouts went smoothly, save for a mild concussion, and Peakes and Coote returned to the team after easily outflying their competition. Chasers were next, and Ginny stepped up along with five other candidates. Demelza sorted them into teams and assigned each team a beater. Ginny was partnered with Euan and Rhea, with Coote as their beater. At Demelza's word, they all moved into a ready position. Everyone stood tensely with a leg over their broom, waiting with nervous apprehension. Then at last, the whistle was blown. Ginny kicked hard off of the ground, ascending quickly as she marveled at the balance of the Nimbus. She heard a yell beneath her as Demelza threw the quaffle up, and the game began in earnest.

Adam Harton snatched the quaffle and shot off toward the goalposts by the Hufflepuff stands. Ginny cursed under her breath and raced after him, followed by the rest of the chasers. Adam reverse-passed to Maya as everyone caught up with him, but she fumbled the catch and dropped it straight into Euan's waiting hands. Euan turned his broom sharply and leaned forward, leaving the others behind as he zoomed toward the opposite goalposts. Maya tried to follow, but Ginny cut in front of her, forcing her to change direction. Ginny turned just in time to see Euan score a goal, and she cheered along with the rest of her teammates. Then Jude grabbed the quaffle and came flying back in Ginny's direction. Coote hit a bludger at Jude, forcing her to duck and drop the quaffle, and Ginny dove down to catch it. She rose back up with the red ball secured in the crook of her arm, and leaned low over her broom's handle. She shot off in the direction of the goals and passed the quaffle over to Rhea as Peakes hit a bludger her way. Rhea caught the ball and almost made it to the goalposts before Adam flew in front of her. She turned desperately and found Ginny tailing behind her. Rhea passed to Ginny with relief, and Ginny flew forward unobstructed, scoring straight through the middle hoop.

Play continued in such a manner until Ginny's team became the first to score five goals. It had been a close game, and Ginny landed with an exhilarated grin as Demelza called them down. Ginny had scored three of her team's goals, and she felt that her performance easily merited a position on the team. Sure enough, Demelza called her name along with Rhea's, complimenting them on their teamwork. Ginny and Rhea grinned at each other, knowing that much of their teamwork could be attributed to their close friendship, but then Demelza probably knew so as well. Keepers were next to tryout, so Ginny flew back up wearily as her adrenaline rush faded. Eventually, Jamie Thorpe was chosen as keeper after a performance that, while not up to Oliver Wood's standard, clearly outmatched all of his competition's. Seekers tried out last, and Sebastian Fitz caught the snitch first with an ingenious feint, easily earning Demelza's approval. As Sebastian landed, Ginny thought she saw him wink slyly in Rhea's direction. She would have dismissed the gesture if not for Rhea's blush and nervous grin back. Ginny smiled maliciously as she recalled all the teasing she had endured at Rhea's hands concerning Harry.

As everyone left the field for class, Ginny hung back and gestured for Demelza to do the same. At last, everyone but the two of them had left the Pitch, but their newfound privacy only increased the awkwardness between them tenfold. Ginny was the first to speak.

"I'm sorry. It's not your fault. And you’re a better captain than I ever was anyway."

Demelza shook her head immediately and said, "I have no idea what I'm doing! You should have been captain, and we both know it. I don't even want the job!" she clenched her broom angrily. "And it's all the fault of those stupid Death Eaters!"

An idea struck Ginny at those words, and she smiled slowly. "Demelza. Have you heard of the DA?"

 

~~~~~~~

 

Honestly, she was surprised that she hadn't thought of it sooner. It was quite a simple plan, but undoubtedly a workable one. Quidditch players were the height of cool in their own Houses, the veritable trendsetters of Hogwarts. So if rumor spread through Gryffindor House that their Quidditch Captain was a member of the DA, the prospect of joining the organization would suddenly become much more enticing. Besides, people were less likely to betray the DA if doing so would result in a blow to their chances for the Quidditch Cup. It was the perfect solution in that it rallied people to the cause while practically guaranteeing their silence.

Demelza had leapt at the chance to help, and had promised that she would talk to the rest of the team during their first practice. Ginny had apologetically told Dennis that he would have to take into account Demelza's timetable, and in all likelihood many others' as well. He had taken the blow stoically, saying that he was glad the DA was growing. Still, he had given a rather rueful grin at the thought of the challenge it posed to juggle so many schedules. He had added that the meetings could take place after curfew, with the Room of Requirement opening passageways into the common rooms. He had previously dismissed the idea since there was always a variety of people in the common rooms, including those eager to report any infractions. These do-gooders resided prominently in Slytherin, which was of no consequence seeing as there were no Slytherins in the DA, but Ravenclaw too had its share of them, and even Hufflepuff and Gryffindor had a few lurking around. Dennis had also mentioned several variations of the plan that he had come up with, none of which would work.

Still, Dennis had felt it his duty to inform Ginny in the hope that she would be able to come up with a less flawed plan. She had discovered that she was no more able than he, but resolved to set the matter to some Ravenclaws. That was, after all, the favored method of problem solving in Hogwarts. At the moment, however, Ginny was too intensely focused on a match of Wizard Chess with Rhea to think about the DA.

"Knight to B2," Ginny said after a moment's consideration.

Rhea laughed evilly. "Bishop to B2," she responded, capturing Ginny's knight. Ginny sighed, knowing the game was lost. She wasn't bad at chess, per se, but she certainly didn't share Ron's aptitude for it.

"Pawn to E5," she said resignedly.

"Pawn to A6," said Rhea, smiling sweetly as she saw Ginny's face fall. "Checkmate!" cackled Rhea in delight. "You can't beat me, Ginny!"

"No, but maybe Sebastian can," said Ginny with an innocent smile. "Why don't you go ask him to play?"

"What are you talking about?" Rhea asked, flushing a glorious red. Ginny gave her a knowing look, and Rhea shook her head instantly. "No! No way. Sebi and I are just friends!"

"Sebi?" asked Ginny amusedly.

"Everyone calls him that," her friend snapped back.

"Uh huh. Sure they do."

Rhea's outraged face was enough to make Ginny's day, but the situation only improved when Sebastian walked over.

"Hey Rhea," he said with a dazzling smile. "Oh, hi Ginny," he added as he noticed her.

"Sebastian!" Ginny shot a look toward Rhea who was seething silently in her chair. "Rhea here was just talking about you!"

The boy's blush rivaled Ron's at the mention of Hermione. Rhea glared at Ginny with alarming intensity, and Ginny knew she was shooting mental Avada Kedavras. Ginny wouldn't be surprised if she suddenly dropped dead through a feat of wandless magic.

"Yeah, Rhea was just wondering whether you're dating anyone right now," Ginny continued rather bravely.

"Really?" asked Sebastian, a small smile quirking his lips.

"No! She's just kidding," Rhea said hastily, throwing Ginny another nasty look. "You know. That's just Ginny's weird sense of humor." Rhea gave a strange laugh and patted Ginny on the arm with more force than was necessary.

"Oh." Sebastian looked rather crestfallen, although Rhea didn't seem to notice. "Well . . . I'll see you at Quidditch, I guess."

Rhea smiled awkwardly. "Yeah. I'll be there. Well, obviously I'll be there since I'm on the team . . . But - er - I'll see you."

"Yes," Ginny said quickly. "Rhea and you will be seeing each other," she added, emphasizing the words suggestively.

"Okay." Sebastian looked around, eventually spotting some friends of his who were all watching and chuckling at his plight. "I'm gonna - er -" he chucked a thumb at the group of boys. "Um . . . Bye." he walked away with a failed attempt at nonchalance. Ginny turned to Rhea with a grin.

"Shut up."

 

~~~~~~

 

The crowd of people had almost doubled in size since the first meeting. It was the largest the DA had ever been, and Ginny felt a thrill of fear and excitement pass through her. It was a positive sign, but rather nerve-racking all the same. Ginny stood at the front of the room, flanked by Dennis and Luna. Dennis's face wore a strange mixture of hope, excitement, and fear. He seemed to be having an epiphany as to what being in the DA meant. Luna, on the other hand, was as calm as ever, smiling serenely at the group of people in front of her. After a few minutes, everyone quieted down and looked up to Ginny for instruction.

"Okay," she began, forcing herself not to fidget with her hands. "I'm not going to lie to you. If you get caught doing stuff for the DA, you’re not going to be let off with just a Cruciatus.”

People gave each other nervous glances, and some couldn't hide the fear on their faces. Ginny was reminded that they were still only children. She realized in surprise that she was as well. She certainly felt much older, and if the weight on her shoulders was indicative of anything, she was. She wondered for a moment how old that made Harry, but quickly pulled her thoughts away from him.

"No one is forcing you to be here. Leave now if you want to, and no one will think any worse of you. But if you stay, you fight."

All was still. A few people looked completely terrified of their choice, but stayed firmly seated. Rhea raised an eyebrow at Ginny from the crowd, forcing her to stifle a nervous laugh.

"Alright then. That's settled." Ginny looked around, but no one disagreed or stood to leave. "So - er - Luna's planning out our attacks, but for the first one, I had something special in mind. See, most of you know about Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes." She paused and saw a few people grin in delight. "Well, my brother George has given me a few gifts that he salvaged from the shop." Ginny pulled out the bag, the reason for it's hefty weight hidden from others through an Undetectable Extension Charm. "This is a Permanent Graffiti Kit," she continued, pulling out a large multi-colored box. There were some appreciative cheers from the crowd, but Ginny didn’t bother to pause in her presentation of the items. One by one, the DA was exposed to a top-of-the-line selection of Skiving Snackboxes, an unnecessary amount of explosive devices, and - for reasons that Ginny could not begin to fathom - multiple figurines of Merlin that swore profusely at anyone who came near.

She eventually ended the display to a round of applause for Weasleys’ Wildfire Whiz-bangs. She knew the dangers of using the products, seeing as she was clearly the prime suspect for anything involving Fred and George's creations, but as long as there was no solid evidence of her involvement, she could get off with no more than a detention. Besides, it seemed to boost everyone's moral to see that the DA possessed such a large arsenal that was practically begging for use against Umbridge, Carrow and Dolohov. 

Once Ginny had finished showing the items, there was little more to be said, so Defense practice began. Several Ravenclaws had volunteered to teach, so there was precious little Ginny could do but walk around and observe everyone. She did, however, partner Rhea and Sebastian, saying that they 'worked well together.' Ginny smirked as she remembered Rhea's scandalized face at those words. Dennis was sitting in the corner behind a small desk, running his hand through his hair in exasperation as he viewed the massive piles of timetables and extra curricular schedules heaped in front of him. Luna was nowhere to be seen, but Ginny supposed that the disappearance could be chalked up to Luna just being her strange self.

Despite the decidedly unrefined spell casting and gross incompetence of many in the Room, Ginny couldn't help but feel a pang of pride as she viewed the proceedings. She found herself wondering how her father would respond to her involvement in the scene, and discovered that she was entirely free of remorse at the thought of the anger he would undoubtedly express. The rebellion was afoot, and it required every assistance offered if it was to survive. It was time for those of all ages to band together in a last-ditch attempt to defeat Voldemort. Sadly, Ginny's father did not share this sentiment, as his judgement concerning her safety had been rather clouded ever since the loss of several family members. George, however, understood. Their shared pain was surely what had driven him to gift her the items from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. He had known, before she had herself, that she would continue to fight once at Hogwarts. It had simply been a matter of logic to give her the bag. He hadn't inspired her to fight, only given her the tools to do so. Ginny truly appreciated that he realized the futility of trying to stop her, and was therefore invested in helping her instead. She was on the verge of being deeply touched by George's thoughtfulness when a wand flew over her head with dangerous proximity.

"Sorry, Ginny!" A figure raced past her in chase of the wand, and Ginny hid her smile of amusement with a raised eyebrow directed toward the back of the running wizard. Few were capable of genuine happiness as of late, but this and the previous DA practice had somehow caused people to differ from that norm. The Room was pervaded by a sense of safety, no matter the jinxes flying around it. There was nowhere else in the school where one could truly be free of Umbridge, Dolohov, and Carrow, and Ginny found herself reveling in the feeling in the manner of one discovering fresh air amidst clouds of poison. Her pain was buried no deeper than at any other instance, but her joy had discovered a way to emerge without dredging up any unwanted feelings along the way. As she looked around the Room, Ginny saw that many of her peers were also subject to this phenomenon. It was a welcome sight in such Dark times, when at the brink of despair, happiness and an impression of security could worm their way into the hearts of even the most downtrodden. This is actually quite nice, reflected Ginny.

As if on cue, a loud crack resounded through the Room, effectively shattering the illusion of safety. Nigh on forty people turned in unison toward the noise, wands raised in a defensive manner.

“Wait!” A squeaky voice called out in desperation. “Please, Masters! I is just bringing your friend!”

A house-elf stood in the middle of the Room, hands raised in a gesture of submission. Luna stood next to it, giving a small smile of greeting to the crowd. They lowered their wands with sighs of relief and turned back to their spellwork as if nothing had happened. Luna nodded down at the house-elf, who disappeared with a grateful look, and then the blonde made her way toward Ginny.

“Hello,” Luna said calmly.

“Hi,” answered Ginny, giving her a questioning look. “What were you doing?” Luna looked confused for a moment and then understanding dawned on her face. 

“Oh. You mean where was I?” Luna asked, and Ginny nodded her head while resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “I was just thinking about your problem - Dennis’s problem, actually - and I figured it out. We can meet after curfew now!”

“What?” Ginny’s excitement was palpable. The possibilities that such a development could bring were endlessly thrilling. If they were so inclined, the DA could meet every day!

“Yes,” Luna continued, apparently unaware of the state of nearly breathless elation that she had wrought upon her friend. “We just go up to our dorms early so that there’s no one else there, and we enter the Room from the dorms.”

“But the Room won’t open passageways into -” Ginny was cut off by Luna.

“We’ll close the curtains around our beds so it looks like we’re sleeping, and the house-elves can bring us here. I just went down to the kitchens to ask them if they would do it, and they said they were happy to be able to help,” finished Luna calmly. Ginny paused, awed by the combined simplicity and ingenuity of the plan.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” she asked, half to herself. Luna gave a helpless shrug in response and made as if to wander off, but Ginny grabbed her sleeve to stop her. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “It’s nice to get some good news nowadays.”

“Isn’t it?” asked Luna, frowning pensively. They stood there for a moment, and then Ginny coughed awkwardly.

“Er . . . Yeah. Anyway, I’m going to go tell Dennis that we can meet after curfew.” Ginny walked away, relieved to escape the awkwardness of conversing with Luna. They were close friends, but that had no effect on Ginny’s initial assessment of Luna which was, quite simply, that she was weird. After spending excessive amounts of time with her, most people would go through a strange phase for a few days that consisted mainly of them staring off into space. Ginny herself had been subject to such, although she had been in Luna’s presence so much that she was largely unaffected by it nowadays. She theorized that it was akin to an illness - but a positive one at that - and one simply had to build up an immunity to it. 

Ginny walked over to Dennis, speculating on how he would react when given the good news about the scheduling. She’d be impressed with his resolution if he managed not to faint in a moment of pure joy.

 

~~~~~~

 

The day had come at last. Several DA members walked down to the Great Hall for lunch, acting the essence of nonchalance. Ginny came in the lead, a large firecracker hidden in her school bag. She was followed by Luna, Dennis, Demelza, and a variety of other seventh years. As they neared their destination, they spread out casually, and by the time they entered the Great Hall they were walking in groups separated by House. Ginny sat down with her friends at the Gryffindor table, a convincingly bored look plastered over her face. She seemed quite disinterested by her surroundings - almost strangely so - but an occasional grin would flit across her face every few minutes for no apparent reason. When lunch was almost over, Ginny rummaged around in her pocket, eventually finding what she was looking for. She squeezed the Galleon tightly, her eyes searching the Hall with a subtleness born from practice. Several people near Ginny tensed, and their reaction was mirrored by a few students sitting at the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables as well. All of them had their hands clutched tightly in their pockets, clearly waiting for something. Ginny let out a deep breath, and with all the calm she could muster, squeezed the Galleon a second time. And then all hell broke loose.

Multiple explosions burst up at the same time, coloring the room a plethora of different neon shades, and several enchanted quills flew around at random, scribbling both inspiring messages and obscenities across the walls and floor. A pack of exploding fireworks spread throughout the Hall, although there were a suspicious amount centered around the Slytherin table. The High Table was being pelted by dungbombs that flew of their own accord, but only Carrow, Dolohov, and Umbridge seemed to be affected by them. Ginny grinned delightedly at the ensuing destruction before covertly opening her bag and pulling out the firecracker nestled in between her books. No one was paying her any attention in the chaos, and she went easily unnoticed as she drew her wand and tapped the firecracker. It hissed, and the wick began to burn down at an alarming rate. Without a second thought, Ginny hurled it toward the High Table, knowing her movement would be overlooked in the midst of the panicking students.

Umbridge’s eyes widened as the firecracker erupted before her, morphing into a large beast. She took in its horse-like torso and the bow gripped in one of its hands before screaming an indistinguishable curse and running as if Voldemort himself were bearing down on her. She was followed closely by the oversized centaur, who was yelling something in a voice that shared a strange resemblance to Umbridge’s own. As most of the students began to calm after the initial shock, the centaur’s words became audible.

“I MUST NOT TELL LIES!”

It shouted the sentence repeatedly in a shrill voice, much to the general amusement of the student body. Indeed, some of the teachers looked to be holding back smiles, although it was difficult to tell amongst all the commotion. Professor McGonagall’s mouth was twitching ever so slightly as she watched Umbridge attempt to evade the centaur, and Professor Sprout had succumbed to a sudden coughing fit of alarming intensity.

Ginny watched the scene with practiced innocence, her eyes wide in false surprise and mouth open in an exaggerated impression of shock. She had always excelled at keeping an impassive face when forced to lie, but as Umbridge fled past her with a yelp of fear, she had to turn to hide her grin.

 

~~~~~~

 

Ginny had been met with a great deal of suspicion after the attack, but there was no real proof of her involvement, and someone had mysteriously smashed all the Veritaserum in the Potions cupboard. Although she had been the subject of intense scrutiny and wariness, she had received no punishment aside from having Filch follow her through the hallways like a dog. She had already managed to schedule another DA meeting, and Dennis and Luna were working out a plan for their next strike.

After the display in the Hall, people had begun to flock to the DA excitedly. Most people came to Ginny and Luna to ask if they could join. There was little that could be done but answer in the positive, but there had been times when someone was deemed untrustworthy. Still, the DA was growing with worrying rapidity. It seemed inevitable for someone to betray the group, and no jinx posed a barrier to them doing so. It was in response to this issue that Ginny decided the Fidelius Charm would have to be placed as it had been last year. But last year, Colin had been the Secret Keeper, and now he was dead. Ginny knew that her most trusted options for the job were also those under the most suspicion already. She wasn't particularly confident in the loyalties of the students who had just recently joined the DA, and this only made it more imperative to find a Secret Keeper.

It was almost a week after the attack when a seventh year approached Ginny about the DA. Her name was Lara Waldron. She was small but athletic, and her prowess in Transfiguration was well-known throughout the school. She would have been the perfect candidate for a DA member, but . . .

“You're a Slytherin!” Ginny exclaimed incredulously.

“It's a House, not a lifestyle,” Lara responded, a slight edge to her voice. Ginny stared at her, mouth agape. “So can I join?” persisted Lara.

“Er - I'm sorry, I don't know anything about the DA,” Ginny said, deciding it was the safest course of action.

“Rubbish! You're obviously in it! Besides,” Lara leaned in and lowered her voice, “I saw you throw the centaur firecracker.”

“What?” Ginny jumped back as if Lara were poisonous. She paused and regained her composure, realizing that it could have been a bluff. “I don't know how you saw that, because -”

“Oh, cut the crap!” snapped Lara. “Now, are you going to let me join or not?”

“Are you blackmailing me?” asked Ginny slowly.

“Wow, you catch on fast,” said Lara, her voice tinged with sarcasm.

“Very Slytherin of you, isn't it?” said Ginny. The remark was meant to be scathing, but Lara just nodded pensively.

“Yes, I suppose it is,” she mused. “But for someone fighting for unity and all that shit, you're very prejudiced.”

Ginny stared at Lara in shock, a million different thoughts racing through her mind. At last, she spoke.

“Have you heard of the Room of Requirement?” she asked. Lara’s face split into a wide grin. “Oh, and do you have an extra Galleon?” Ginny added as an afterthought.

 

~~~~~~~

 

Lara showed up to the next DA practice and performed a defensive charm that immediately skyrocketed her popularity in the group. There were still many who shared Ginny’s initial distrust of Lara, but the Slytherin seemed unperturbed by the glares she attracted. The following week was largely uneventful; Umbridge continued her struggle to discover the culprits of the attack, and Ginny continued her charade of innocence. The remnants of the chaos in the Great Hall consisted of a variety of messages written by the enchanted quills. They were supposedly irremovable, although Ginny had caught Professor Flitwick discreetly erasing some of the more obscene phrases. 

The most common message remained, scrawled across every solid surface in the Hall. It was incredibly gratifying to walk in for a meal and be surrounded by those words. The words that meant the Battle of Hogwarts had never truly ended.

Dumbledore's Army: Still Recruiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have any critique to give, comments are much appreciated!


	3. Gettin’ Along

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about what is probably very weird formatting. I'm trying here. There's going to be quite a bit of cursing in this chapter, so that's fun. Anyway, it'll probably be about a month before my next update, so if you're reading the story, please just hang in there. There are a few references in this chapter that I will credit in my end note. Enjoy!

A few attacks were launched, but on a smaller scale than the first. The continued hunt for D.A. members was to no avail, and Carrow and Dolohov had taken to lashing out at random in class. Ginny received a punishment for glaring at Dolohov, and Luna was tortured for a hand movement that was supposedly some sort of secret code. Innocent first years were targeted as often as the true perpetrators of the attacks, and it seemed that the only people safe from the wrath of the Death Eaters were the Slytherins. Lara had become a great asset to the D.A. in this manner; she had launched several explosions in class, much to the bewilderment of the professors, who were watching the other Houses much more closely. As more people began to accept her good nature, she became much more open around her peers. Ginny was even starting to consider Lara something of a friend, and she suspected the feelings were reciprocated.

It was after curfew one day, during a D.A. practice, when Ginny finally came to a decision about the issue that had been pestering her.

“Okay!” she called out, effectively silencing the room. A stray hex flew past her before the last head turned in her direction. “I've made up my mind. Our Secret Keeper will be . . .” she paused, allowing the suspense to build. A few people visibly leaned forward. “Lara!”

Cries of mingled support and outrage filled the room, and Lara alone looked too stunned to speak. She met eyes with Ginny, clearly confused, and Ginny offered her a reassuring smile. As the commotion died down, one person stood up authoritatively.

“Ginny's right,” Luna said, her dreamy smile fixed in place. “Lara is a good choice.”

There was a pause as everyone waited for Luna to expound upon her opinion. No explanation was forthcoming, however, so they turned back to Ginny expectantly.

“Er . . . Thanks, Luna. Anyway, I need to cast the enchantment on you now.” Ginny gestured Lara forward, ignoring the murmurs that followed the Slytherin.

“What are you doing?” Lara whispered.

“No one will suspect you,” Ginny responded. After a pause, she added, “And I trust you.”

Lara looked gratified at the revelation and then Ginny raised her wand and recited the incantation that she had been practicing.

“Fidelitas Praesidio!” she said, touching her wand’s tip against Lara’s forehead. For a brief moment, the tip glowed a warm yellow, and then Ginny pulled it away and Lara took in a deep breath. “Did it work?” asked Ginny, studying Lara for any indication of the spell’s success.

“Yeah. Yeah, it worked,” Lara said, rubbing her hand against her head. Ginny felt a wave of relief wash over her; she had been in a state of constant worry recently, knowing how simple it would be for any one of the D.A. recruits to betray the group. Now that the spell was cast, an almost tangible sense of safety descended upon her mind. There was only one person who could betray them, and Ginny trusted Lara to stay true to her word. Clearly, these effects of the charm were not lost on the other D.A. members, seeing as the fear that they had all been exuding nearly dissipated entirely over the next few weeks.

The attacks continued on a regular basis, and Umbridge had yet to apprehend a single wrongdoer. Every wall in the school was covered with graffiti, and Ginny herself had inscribed a fair share of the messages. During the day, she would often stroll through the hallways, taking pleasure in the signs of rebellion that surrounded her. It had become a common occurence to find the name of a victim of the Death Eaters carved into a brick, along with a short note that read: We will avenge you. These small tributes were scattered across the castle, and they were dedicated not only to well-known heroes such as Dumbledore, but also to the many brave people who deserved acknowledgement simply for giving their lives to the cause. Luna wrote Dobby’s name on one of the walls, accompanied by a drawing of a tea-cosy.

There was only one problem, really, but a glaringly obvious one at that: what the D.A. was doing wasn’t making a difference. Naturally, it rallied students to their cause and did a fair job of angering Umbridge, Alecto, and Dolohov, but what was the point? They couldn’t keep on in such a manner forever, and once they were caught, their pranks and messages would be forgotten as quickly as their fire of rebellion had sparked. Ginny could see only fruitlessness as the ultimate result of their endeavors, and she simply wasn’t willing to leave that behind as the D.A.'s legacy. She could sense the others getting restless as well, but she could think of no solution, no grand plan to cure the hunger for vengeance that was eating away at them all.

 

~~~~~~~

 

Ginny scanned the room proudly, noting the vast improvement that people had made since the beginning of the year. She knew that the D.A.'s fight was, at the moment, insignificant compared to the real battles occurring outside of the supposed safety of the school walls, but she was still given some modicum of satisfaction by their blatant defiance of the Death Eaters inside of Hogwarts.

Harry would be proud, she realized with a sudden certainty. She smiled slightly at the thought. Merlin, I miss him.

Ginny afforded herself an ounce of hope as she remembered Harry. Hope was, perhaps, a path that would more likely than not lead to a let-down. But it wouldn’t be very Gryffindor of her to do anything but take a chance and cling onto her remaining hope with all the strength she had left.

As Ginny arrived at this admirable sentiment, the doors to the Room of Requirement swung open. She turned immediately, knowing that all D.A. members were Apparated to the Room by house-elves, and was met with an unexpected face. Her innate reaction at the sight of the person standing in the entryway was to cast a highly potent Bat-Bogey Hex and then run in the other direction screaming bloody murder. She did neither of these things, however, as the fear painted clearly across Draco Malfoy’s young features made her hesitate long enough to notice that he was unarmed and unaccompanied. Still, she was in no mood to deal with whatever shite Malfoy was up to.

“What do you want?” she growled lowly, a dangerous silence falling upon the Room. Some of the D.A. members looked downright murderous at Malfoy’s presence - he was indirectly responsible for many a death. He stepped forward cautiously, clearly relieved that he hadn’t been hexed into oblivion at first sight. The doors swung closed silently behind him.

“Look, I don’t give a fuck about your little rebellion,” he sneered. Ginny leveled her wand at his ferret of a face, cocking an eyebrow in challenge. He blanched and stepped back quickly. “But,” he continued pointedly, “I . . . Mudbloods don’t deserve - I mean -” Malfoy paused and took in a deep breath, apparently not noticing the steam emitting from the tip of Ginny’s wand at his use of the slur. “I’m not buying into your damn equality act. But the Dark Lord is wrong,” he managed.

“Oh, come to your senses now, have you?” asked Ginny contemptuously. “Now that the world’s gone to shite?”

“You’re wrong about the Mudbloods,” Malfoy assured her quickly, as though it would pain him for people to think he was fully on the Light side. “But . . .The Dark Lord. He’s causing so much suffering.”

“I realize,” said Ginny coldly. “So what do you want, Malfoy? Cut to the chase.”

He paused reluctantly, and Ginny knew that she was not going to like whatever he was about to say.

“You need to hide me,” he said. The Room froze for a moment and everyone simply stared at him in disbelief. Then the shouting started:

“After everything -”

“That jumped-up little -”

“You’ve got some nerve -”

Ginny just looked at Malfoy with a mixture of incredulosity and anger. As the Room quieted around her, her gaze remained fixated upon his features with frightening intensity, causing him to shrink even farther back into the doors. At last, the final angry murmurs died down and a deathly silence seemed to fill the Room.

“We don’t owe you a single fucking thing,” she finally managed to grit out. “You let them in. To our school, you let them in. You’re the reason Dumbledore is dead. You’re the reason Harry is . . .” she trailed off.

Malfoy simply looked at Ginny for a moment before stepping toward her. The movement was not particularly aggressive, but several people raised their wands anyway, clearly looking for any excuse to curse him senseless. He took in a deep breath as if frustrated by their complete lack of trust in him.

“Honestly?” he said, surveying the hostile expressions of the people surrounding him. “You think I wanted this? Hogwarts is dead. Mudbloods are dying. You fucking idiots are holed up in here fighting an adult’s war! You think I don’t know that?” He thrust his left arm forward suddenly, the sleeve of his robe sliding down to reveal the Dark Mark burned into his flesh. “You think I don’t know what this means?” he cried, tone escalating as he brandished the Mark in Ginny’s face. “I’m not that blind, okay! So what do you want me to say? I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt? They tortured me into doing it? We both bloody well know that those are lies!”

“Why?” asked Ginny coolly, unmoved by Malfoy’s outburst. In another world she might have felt sympathy for his predicament, but in this world there wasn’t enough pity to go around for everyone, and Ginny certainly wasn’t going to waste her share on someone who’d had a hand in her brothers’ deaths. “Why come now when you had every chance to before?”

“Why do you give a fuck?” responded Malfoy with more force than necessary.

“Because I don’t trust you,” Ginny said matter-of-factly.

“Well then I don’t suppose anything I say will make much of a difference,” he bit back, turning as if to leave.

“Wait!”

A small figure emerged from the watching crowd of D.A. members, conspicuous through the Slytherin crest on her robes.

“Waldron?” said Malfoy, startled. His lip curled in disdain. “I should have known you’d be up here, slumming it with blood traitors,” he sneered.

“Oh, you mean like you are?” Lara answered without missing a beat. “How’d you even find us? Not through magical expertise, I know that.”

A few people snickered at Malfoy’s expense, and Ginny was quite certain that Lara had just acquired several new friends.

“Sod off, Waldron. You don’t have the brains to contend with me. As for the Room, well . . . I’ve been here before,” he said, cocking his head in thought for a moment. “And I think I’m correct in assuming that I couldn’t have entered if I was a threat. So you already know that my intentions are not aligned with those of the Dark Lord. I also believe that even Gryffindors aren’t so foolhardy as to hand out their location to so many students without a safeguard. I’d hazard a guess at the Fidelius Charm.”

Ginny drew in a sharp breath at his accurate surmisal, but Lara seemed unfazed.

“Yes. Bravo to you for figuring it out,” she said boredly. “It’s not as if it’s all that difficult.”

“Not at all,” Malfoy said smugly. “Gryffindors are suckers for the whole trust system. But more importantly, I cannot reveal this location while it is protected by a Fidelius. Therefore, I may leave.”

Again, he headed for the doors, this time at a more determined clip.

“Wait, Malfoy!” called Lara for a second time. He ignored her, reaching for the door handle. “I’m sorry about your parents,” she said, voice losing its biting edge.

He froze for a moment before spinning on his heel, drawing his wand from his robes in one fluid motion and pointing it unwaveringly at Lara’s chest. Ginny made as if to defend her, but Lara waved her away.

“There’s no other reason you’d have switched sides.” Lara smiled a bit sadly. “You can’t hide anything from a Slytherin,” she said, and from her tone of voice it was clear that she was quoting Malfoy himself from some distant memory. He stared at her as if seeing a new person, blinking a few times.

Perhaps to hold back tears, Ginny realized belatedly.

“I . . .” Malfoy’s wand hand shook violently. He took in a steadying breath, regaining his composure. “What’s it to you anyways? They were Death Eaters.”

Lara seemed surprised by his sudden vulnerability. Clearly she would have been much more comfortable with a rousing duel than the mushy-feely area of conversation that had just been breached. Thankfully, Luna came to her rescue.

“We all fight for our own reasons,” the Ravenclaw speculated lightly. “Who’s to say that Dumbledore’s Army isn’t wrong? It’s not so black and white. Not even green and red, really.”

Ginny almost laughed at everyone’s bemusement, despite the gravity of the situation. She found herself wondering whether Dumbledore had been like Luna during his Hogwarts years; they shared an unusual intelligence and a great love for confusingly cryptic statements. Malfoy seemed to have understood, however. His gaze pierced Luna’s as if searching for the sincerity behind it. After a long moment he turned back to Ginny, his face set resolutely.

“I don’t want to fight. Call me a coward if you like, but I think it makes me smarter than you lot,” he said, without any conviction behind his insult. “But I can still help.”

Ginny attempted to gauge his sincerity. He was a Slytherin, she knew, but so was Lara. And everything he had done had simply been to please his parents. But she remembered George’s face at Platform 9 ¾. The pain he seemed to exude that she, too, had felt. Did feel. Because she had never truly come to terms with any of it. Tears welled to her eyes unbidden.

She knew her decision.

“No,” she said finally, meeting his eyes almost apologetically. To her surprise, he didn’t look angry; simply remorseful. She would have felt sorry for him, but she somehow couldn’t bring herself to do so. And so that should have been the end of the matter.

“That’s not your choice to make.”

Ginny looked at Lara incredulously. The audacity that she had, to act as if she knew the loss that Ginny felt.

“It’s certainly not your choice,” responded Ginny sharply.

“No,” Lara said in a voice no less harsh. “It’s everyone’s. The D.A.'s a democracy; we need consensus.”

People were nodding in agreement, and Ginny knew that it made sense. Still, she didn’t have to like it.

“Fine. We’ll have a vote,” she said after a moment. “All in favor of letting Malfoy stay?”

Quite a few hands were raised, and as she counted, Ginny felt her heart sink. It was the majority - although not by an overwhelming amount - and Lara, Luna, and Dennis were all amongst the group.

“All against?” she asked, just for the sake of formality. Her own hand lifted, along with Sky’s, and a good deal of others followed suit. “He stays,” she proclaimed after a pause.

No one cheered, or protested, or did anything much really. They just slowly drifted off into clumps and began to practice their duelling once more. 

No one seemed to feel it a victory, but Ginny certainly thought it a loss.

I’m not always going to get my way, she reminded herself. That’s life.

Well, life was a bitch, so great consolation that was.

 

~~~~~~~

 

“I got detention,” Sky told Ginny plaintively.

“Again?” asked Dennis, his voice filled with ill-concealed amusement.

“Shut it, Creevey!” Sky snapped. A few people sniggered, and Dennis turned back to his food with a grin.

“What’d you do this time?” said Ginny, knowing that it was sure to make a good story.

“Alecto was going on about blood purity and just being an all-around arse,” explained Sky.

“And?”

“I told her to go fuck herself,” she said matter-of-factly, sounding extremely satisfied with herself.

“Mmm.” Dennis nodded wisely. “Subtle.”

Ginny snorted.

“But really, Carrow and Dolohov take jabs at me all the time,” Dennis told Sky. “You know, my mother’s a Muggle and my dad’s a Squib, so I barely squeezed my way into Hogwarts the past two years. You don’t see me jumping at the two of them, though, do you?”

“Well, you’re a wuss,” she informed him. 

Ginny kept her head bent over her plate, although a small smile threatened to reach her mouth. Once, she would have joined in with Sky’s teasing, but part of her knew that Dennis was right. It was a dangerous game they were playing.

She had been forcing herself not to speak back in class - although she had come quite close to breaking her silence more than once - since she knew that her ancestry was the only weak protection she had left against the Death Eaters, especially since they already suspected her of involvement in certain . . . illicit activities. Most of the other D.A. members were in the same predicament, and things had quieted down considerably in class once the rebellion had started up. Sky was one of the few who still spoke out openly, and Ginny knew that, as the leader of the DA, she ought to chastise the younger girl for her recklessness. But damn if it wasn’t funny.

“Miss Weasley.”

Ginny looked up at Professor McGonagall.

“Yes?”

“Please follow me to my classroom. Your work ethic and grades have suffered dismally over the past month.”

The ruse fooled no one, but Ginny had the decency to play along, knowing the importance of keeping up appearances.

“Of course, Professor.”

The two walked to the classroom in uncomfortable silence, and as soon as they reached the threshold, McGonagall ushered Ginny in and locked the door behind them with a strong charm. They sat across from each other at the front of the room, Ginny shifting slightly in her seat as she waited for her teacher to speak.

McGonagall looked at her seriously, a small frown creasing her lips.

“You are much less skilled at the art of subterfuge than you appear to believe, Miss Weasley. Every move that Dumbledore’s Army makes can be traced back to you. It is not wise to use your brothers’ products.”

Ginny cast the door a nervous glance, fearing an eavesdropper was lurking on the other side.

“It is enchanted. We cannot be heard nor observed in any other manner.”

“Okay, fine. Yes, I’m in the DA. But you already knew that, so why did you bring me here?” Ginny asked.

“My students’ safety is my top priority,” McGonagall answered without missing a beat. “And you are in danger.”

Ginny stared at her incredulously for a moment.

“Yes, I’d rather noticed,” she said dryly. McGonagall ignored her sarcasm.

“My . . . colleagues, Headmistress Umbridge and Professors Dolohov and Carrow, believe you to be the instigator of the D.A.’s “aggressions" against this school.”

“They don’t have any proof,” Ginny said quickly.

“As I said, it’s fairly obvious,” McGonagall said. “However, you are correct. They cannot definitively prove you to be the leader of the D.A..”

“Okay,” Ginny said, not seeing the problem.

“They will attempt to prove your guilt through nearly any means possible,” McGonagall said, paling slightly at the thought. “I am not aware of any plans as of yet, but they will act soon, I’m sure. So for Merlin’s sake, Weasley, do be careful, won’t you?”

“Er - Yes, well I haven’t been caught yet, so . . . Is that all?” asked Ginny awkwardly, standing to leave.

“You do not seem to be grasping the gravity of this situation,” said McGonagall impatiently. “You cannot continue this . . . this fool’s game of yours!”

Ginny felt a hot rush of anger sweep through her. She had been fighting for over a month now, and where was McGonagall? Holed up in her office playing pet to Umbridge!

“Thank you for your advice,” Ginny said coolly, turning towards the door.

“Sit down, Miss Weasley,” said the Transfiguration professor, sounding suddenly very much like her old self. “Have a biscuit.”

Ginny stopped and turned back in sheer disbelief.

“What?”

“I said have a biscuit,” said McGonagall, producing from within her desk a small tartan tin. Ginny looked at her as if she had gone mad. McGonagall sighed exasperatedly. “Well, come on then,” she said expectantly.

Ginny slowly made her way back to her abandoned chair, taking a seat uncertainly. McGonagall gestured to the tin, but Ginny shook her head.

“We won’t stop,” Ginny resumed stubbornly, resisting the urge to cross her arms. McGonagall surveyed her for a moment before seeming to reach a conclusion on something.

“I know what you must be thinking of me right now,” she said. “And I can’t say I blame you. I would probably think the same in your situation.”

“Then why don’t you help us?” asked Ginny urgently. “Please,” she added as an afterthought.

“How can you know that I’m not helping already?” McGonagall said.

“You mean . . .?” Ginny trailed off, eyes widening.

“Indeed I do “mean,” as you so eloquently put it,” said McGonagall. “I have been assisting you and the others in your escapades - again, you are less subtle than you seem to think.”

“And you’re okay with possibly being caught and - wait. Why haven’t you already been sacked?” Ginny asked, suddenly realizing that the teacher had never explained her continued presence in the school after fighting against Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts.

“They wanted a competent teacher. The next generation of purebloods must, after all, be well-versed in magic,” McGonagall said, a hint of irony touching her voice.

“They forgot to interview Carrow beforehand, then?” Ginny asked jokingly. To her surprise, the thin line of a smile quirked McGonagall’s lips.

“Yes, that must have been it,” the professor agreed. “For Dolohov as well.”

“At least he’s only going to last one year,” Ginny pointed out.

“Yes,” McGonagall said, her hand tightening around her wand. “And I have a good idea of how he’s going to go.”

Ginny stared at McGonagall, dumbfounded. It was clear that the threat had not been an idle one, and Ginny was amazed by the sudden boldness of it. McGonagall raised an eyebrow ever so slightly.

“Biscuit?”

~~~~~~~

 

“Fuck! Someone’s coming!”

“I’m almost done,” Luna said, not sounding the least bit worried.

“Yes, and I’m sure whoever it is will give you a few moments to finish,” Ginny responded bitingly, lowering her voice to a whisper in response to the nearing footsteps.

Luna didn’t deign to respond, instead focusing all her effort on the elegant graffiti that she was crafting. Ginny hissed in frustration and nervously rolled her wand between her fingertips, peering outside of the Great Hall for a moment before drawing back with a sharp intake of breath.

She ran over to Luna, not daring to speak across the Hall for fear of being heard.

“I think it’s Dolohov,” she muttered lowly. Luna gave a small nod and sped up her wand movements, but Ginny knew they would never make it in time. The Death Eater would enter in a matter of seconds, and she knew that despite all his flaws as a DADA professor, Dolohov was an excellent dueler.

“Luna, get down. And put out your wand,” Ginny ordered, ducking below the High Table as Luna did the same. The dim blue glow emitting from the blonde’s wand was extinguished quickly with a silent spell, and the room descended fully into eerie darkness. Ginny held her breath, listening closely.

“Homenum Revelio!” Dolohov incanted, his voice raspy and dry. Ginny felt an odd sensation sweep over her, and she shuddered at the unexpected feeling.

He knows we’re here, she thought, her wand hand tensing slightly. She shifted into a crouch on one knee, her wand rising into a dueling position. Luna, too, seemed to be preparing herself.

Dolohov chuckled.

“I hear you!” he called out, his footsteps resounding through the Hall as he walked with slow deliberation toward the High Table. “And I know there’s two of you!” he added gleefully. “See, I thought I saw something from the corridor, so I came to look around. Didn’t think it’d be anything, but from the looks of it I’ve got two of Dumbledore’s Army’s lot in one go. Weasley, I’m guessing, and someone else. Madsen, maybe? Or Lovegood? Or maybe the little Creevey?”

Well, no one had said he was stupid. A confrontation seemed unavoidable now, and Ginny cursed mentally. As had been discovered earlier that night, the Hogwarts grounds were now protected against the use of Disillusionment Charms, and Ginny found within herself the pettiness to be annoyed at the moment by Umbridge’s tenacity.

Still, now was not the time. Dolohov was making his way around the table, and Ginny moved back slowly, thinking that perhaps she and Luna could make a run for it. She heard, rather than saw, Dolohov turning to face her. He knew where she was, and he would only deflect any spells she sent his way. Maybe she could win in a duel, but it was not the time for risks.

She prepared to turn away from Dolohov and try to sprint to safety, although she didn’t like the idea of leaving her back exposed. Luna was in front of her, assumedly poised in a similar way. This was it.

“You had a brother named Charlie, didn’t you, Weasley?” asked Dolohov suddenly, his tone mocking. 

Ginny froze. The silence preceding his next words seemed to stretch on for an eternity.

“He wasn’t much of a Gryffindor. He cried when I killed him,” Dolohov said, and there was smug satisfaction in his voice. Ginny’s world turned upside down.

Charlie. The Charlie who would do anything for anyone and blushed when he was thanked. The Charlie whose smile could light up a room without effort. The same Charlie who saw her sneaking into the broom closet and whispered that it would be their secret. And indeed, he never told a soul. That was the Charlie who had managed to Apparate to the Battle as it was ending, determined to make a difference.

The sadness that she had been feeling for months was burned away by hot, flaming anger. The man in front of her was the reason her brother was gone. Without thinking, without processing the consequences of her actions, Ginny rose to her full height, her wand pointed at the source of Dolohov’s voice.

“Avada Kedavra!”

There was a moment of silence, then:

“I didn’t think you had it in you, Weasley. But I can dodge a spell or two,” said Dolohov. He was still taunting her, but his voice shook just slightly. “Why don’t I make this easier for both of us?” he asked. It seemed as if he was struggling to regain the upper-hand. “Here.”

The candles in the Hall flickered suddenly with magical flames, and Ginny was treated to a view of Dolohov’s pale, twisted face.

“So it is Lovegood!” the Death Eater said, and Ginny remembered with a jolt that Luna was still behind her. “Well, well. The rising stars of rebellion, eh?”

“Stupefy!” Ginny yelled, skipping the formalities. Dolohov deflected her spell with ease.

“Done with the Unforgivables, are you?” he sneered. “I’m not. Crucio!”

Ginny threw herself out of the way just in time, the curse sailing past her by mere inches.

“No!” cried Luna, running forwards. “Impedimenta!”

Again, Dolohov blocked the spell. He threw a jet of dark light at Luna, but Ginny took the brunt of the spell with a hasty shield charm.

“Let’s go!” Luna said, sending a jinx at Dolohov.

“He’s - seen - us!” Ginny panted. And then she was weightless, flying through the air uncontrollably until she hit the stone wall. She blacked out for a moment, drowned in darkness and pain. When she came to, she found that Luna was lying next to her, eyes closed. Dolohov stood a few feet off, holding three wands in his hand, and Ginny felt sheer panic for an instant as she realized that she had been disarmed. Being wandless - especially in front of an enemy - was any witch or wizard’s worst nightmare.

“Your Army should learn to train its members better,” Dolohov said with a smirk. “But you’re the leader, aren’t you?” he asked. “And you must have learned from your coward brother, dear Charlie.”

A growl escaped Ginny’s throat, feral and low, but Dolohov just laughed. Ginny considered lunging at him, catching him off-guard, but she doubted it would work. Then again, that had never stopped her before.

And without warning, Ginny sprang at Dolohov. He slashed the three wands out haphazardly, but Ginny tumbled underneath the jets of light and leapt back to her feet, crashing into him with all her might. He fell back, yelling, and Ginny grabbed for her wand.

He grunted, drawing back his free hand and punching her in the face. She recoiled, hands clutched instinctively to her newly bleeding nose. Dolohov scrambled to his feet, pointing the wands at her.

“You’re going to get a long detention for this one, Weasley,” he snarled, breathing heavily.

“Excuse me,” a crisp voice came from the entryway of the Great Hall. “But you may want to discuss that with Miss Weasley’s head of house.”

Dolohov spun around, wands at the ready, but he never had a chance. A streak of light collided with his chest, and he toppled backwards without a sound. Ginny pushed herself out of the way just before his head cracked against the floor at her feet.

Professor McGonagall strode forth, her eyes flashing dangerously, and Ginny could only sit in dumbfounded silence as her teacher approached.

“Why don’t you check on Miss Lovegood?” McGonagall suggested softly, her voice not matching the anger in her gaze.

“Um - Okay. Yeah. I should do that.” Ginny stumbled over her words, shocked as she was by the night’s events. She stood up hastily and moved to Luna’s side, lifting her unconscious friend into a standing position.

“That would be easier with a wand,” McGonagall said, holding out both Ginny and Luna’s wands.

“Thanks,” Ginny said, taking them with relief. She had felt so incredibly powerless without her wand. “Er - Professor, what about Dolohov?”

McGonagall looked down at the Death Eater with distaste.

“Confundo!” she said, and they watched together as Dolohov’s eyes clouded.

“Did you see anyone else in the corridors?” Ginny asked suddenly, feeling awful that she hadn’t remembered sooner.

“If you are referring to Demelza Robins and Gilford Abbot, then yes,” McGonagall said. “They were both Stunned nearby. I have already Rennervated them and sent them to their dorms.”

“Thank Merlin,” said Ginny. “They were our lookouts.”

“I don’t believe you know what you’re talking about, Miss Weasley,” McGonagall responded crisply. “You and your friends simply came down to the Great Hall to get an early start to the day.”

Ginny gave a small snort at the incredulous story. It was around 1:00 in the morning. McGonagall narrowed her eyes meaningfully.

“Er - yes, Professor. Sorry. I had no idea it was this early. I’ll just be going to bed, then . . .?” Ginny said hopefully, beginning to inch away from the inauspicious scene of a Stunned Death Eater and a renownedly strict professor.

“You are in no condition to do anything of the sort!” McGonagall reprimanded harshly, and Ginny turned back slowly. “You and Miss Lovegood will go to the Hospital Wing and receive proper care for your injuries from Madam Pomfrey!”

“Alright,” Ginny said reluctantly, levitating Luna with care and making as if to leave.

“Miss Weasley?”

Ginny turned around again.

“Yes, Professor?”

“I don’t believe you’re quite finished yet,” said McGonagall, gesturing towards Luna’s artfully graffitied wall. Ginny grinned, just a bit, and she suddenly felt like a different person from the one who had tried to kill someone mere minutes ago.

“Sorry,” Ginny said, raising her wand. In a few minutes, she had crudely finished vandalizing the Great Hall. McGonagall took a look at the finished work, gave a light sniff, and nodded her approval.

 

~~~~~~~

 

Ginny walked to breakfast the next morning, having been hastily tended to the night before by an irate Madam Pomfrey. As it turned out, she and Luna had both suffered concussions, although Luna’s was much more severe due to her proximity to Dolohov when he cast the offending spell. Thankfully, Madam Pomfrey was a miracle worker, and Luna had been revived and cured as well.

So, as far as Ginny could tell, everything had worked itself out in the end. All that remained to be seen was the reaction of Voldemort’s supporters to the graffiti that decorated the Hall. It was not disappointing.

Umbridge was shooting spell after spell at the defaced wall, yelling for help. Alecto Carrow was threatening a group of random students who could only shake their heads helplessly in response to her queries. And Dolohov was trying to aid Umbridge but kept pausing to rub his hand against the back of his head, seeming very unsure of himself. Ginny sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Sky, who was making no attempt at hiding her delight.

“Good one,” the younger girl said with a grin.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ginny responded as she helped herself to some eggs.

“Right,” Sky chuckled, shaking her head. “Thanks anyway, though. Umbridge looks like she’s going to have a fit!”

Ginny couldn’t resist looking up again, biting back a smile as she saw the truth in Sky’s words. It wasn’t surprising, really; the drawing was sure to be a catalyst for all kinds of new pranks and resistance. She, however, could not claim the credit. It had been Luna’s idea from the start, and the rest of the D.A. had instantly agreed to the design that she proposed: a badger, an eagle, a snake, and a lion, all intertwined in a large circle. Inside, there would be a pair of round glasses beneath a lightning bolt scar. The image had now come to life, magically carved and irremovably charmed into the wall. Luna had done most of it with her usual expertise, thankfully only leaving the scar and the accompanying words to Ginny’s barely mediocre skills.

The words themselves were perhaps Ginny’s favorite part of the whole thing. They carried an unmistakable message that not only resounded deeply amongst those willing to fight, but was also clearly linked to the motto of Hogwarts. The phrase was simple and concise: You tickled a dragon. On seeing it inscribed into the wall, Ginny suddenly realized the countless sexual innuendos that could be derived from it, and she had to force herself to stifle a laugh.

“And how did it go for you and Dennis?” Ginny asked in an undertone, turning back to Sky.

“Oh, excellent,” she said, smiling evilly. “Portable Swamps are very efficient. And I’m in Dolohov’s first class, so I’ll get to see him go berserk up close.”

“Yeah. I have Carrow first, so same for me.” Ginny grinned, but after a moment her expression sobered again. “Be careful around Dolohov, okay? He’s dangerous.”

“The intrepid Ginny Weasley telling me to be careful? Hypocrite.”

A snarky retort was on the tip of Ginny’s tongue, but she thought back to her crazed attack on Dolohov the night before and didn’t respond, forced to concede that Sky had a point. For some reason, she felt quite proud at the insinuation that she was perhaps too audacious. Probably a side-effect of her Gryffindor upbringing.

 

~~~~~~~

 

The Portable Swamps had indeed been a great success; Alecto had arrived at class and yelled at all her students for waiting outside the room. Before anyone could explain, she had flung open the door and stepped in, promptly sinking to her neck in the foul-smelling mud that had engulfed the floor of her classroom. Some rather inventive cursing had followed. 

Ginny sat down at the Gryffindor table for dinner, grinning at the memory.

“So are you just going to ignore Lara for the rest of your life?” asked Dennis, effectively shattering her good mood as he nodded in reference at the Slytherin, who had just entered the Great Hall.

“I can try,” Ginny said, suddenly annoyed.

“She was right, though,” Dennis forged on. “We all get a vote. It’s only fair.”

“You know how much of a pain in the arse Malfoy’s being,” hissed Ginny a bit angrily, determined to defend her stance. “Two people are missing dinner right now to make sure the little shite doesn’t do something that’ll get us all killed!”

“The house-elves are bringing them dinner,” Dennis pointed out.

“Oh sod off, Creevey,” Sky said. “Malfoy’s a prick and you know it.”

Dennis opened his mouth to respond, but he was promptly cut off by one of the most dreaded sounds in the universe:

“Hem, hem.”

Ginny turned so quickly that her neck cricked, and she felt the sudden, unpleasant rushing heat near her collarbone. Umbridge stood in front of the High Table, projecting her voice with a Sonorus charm, and Ginny remembered with satisfaction that Dumbledore had never needed to magically amplify his voice when addressing the Great Hall.

“As you may have noticed,” Umbridge began, her voice high and breathy, “Hogwarts has once again been attacked by the rogue group who call themselves Dumbledore’s Army.”

Sky snickered and Ginny elbowed her.

“This will not stand,” Umbridge continued, clearly struggling to keep a level tone. Ginny understood: if Umbridge seemed rattled by a student rebellion, it would not bode well for her position as headmistress. She needed to appear calm and collected in front of her audience. “If the wrongdoers step forward now, their . . . punishment . . . will be minimized.”

“Punishment? Torture, she means,” Sky muttered, not all too quietly. Several heads turned in her direction, and Ginny gave her a glare

“If those who committed these atrocities will not give themselves up willingly, then I will have no choice but to punish . . . at random.”

An outbreak of muttering filled the Hall, Sky among the louder end of those speaking.

“Yeah right, random. Bet there won’t be any Slytherins getting detention,” she said. Ginny didn’t even bother trying to quiet her this time.

“Hem, hem!” Umbridge called attention back to herself, her anger now botching the sickly facade of childishness that she usually hid behind. People turned back to face her, and she cleared her throat, regaining her composure. “I will therefore give the real attackers a chance to claim responsibility for their crimes. Now.”

She stopped and waited. Some students looked around uncertainly, a few D.A. members even making eye contact with Ginny as they tried to silently ask her what the plan of action was. Ginny mentally cursed them for their lack of subtlety, shaking her head slightly in response to their questioning looks. She figured that Umbridge would only give detention to those who were already suspected of having previous involvement with the D.A.. If so, giving themselves up now would only give Umbridge definite proof of their rule-breaking.

So no one stood.

“Very well,” Umbridge said, her voice somehow rising another octave. “The first year class of Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws are to report for detention every Defense class for the next month.”

The yells that filled the Hall were incoherent for the most part, but Ginny caught a good deal of swearing. Probably because she was sitting next to Sky.

Her brain wasn’t really registering what had just happened, or how it could happen. This was Hogwarts! Even Snape hadn’t gone so far! It was almost as if the castle were something sacred, to be revered, and Umbridge’s taint was covering it. Ginny became dimly aware that she was shouting as well, her outrage mingling with that of half the students seated in the Great Hall with her.

A loud bang resounded, and everyone turned instinctively towards its source: Umbridge. Her wand was in the air, a trail of smoke emitting from it.

“I will have order,” she said, voice trembling with fury. “I gave you the choice to take responsibility for your actions, and as you have not -”

“I did it!”

Sky stood up boldly, glaring at Umbridge without fear. Ginny felt an overwhelming desire to smack her.

“Son of a -”

“I helped too!” yelled a fourth year Hufflepuff, who was definitely not in the D.A..

“So did I!” added his friend, both of them standing to face the High Table. And then others began to stand, proclaiming their supposed guilt in the matter. Even several Slytherins stood, although Lara was not among them. Ginny got up as well, trying to make her voice heard over the commotion, trying to say that half these people hadn’t done a damn thing.

“You’re not going to stop them,” Sky told her, sounding delighted. “They want this.”

“They want to be tortured for a month?” Ginny asked, maddened by Sky’s joviality.

“They want to tell Umbridge to fuck off!” Sky exclaimed.

“Yeah, well, I’m sure they’ll change their minds when they feel the Cruciatus,” Ginny said bitterly. Sky looked disappointed in her for some reason and turned back to face the High Table without another word.

 

~~~~~~~

 

“Well. We’re fucked,” Ginny said to Dennis that night in the common room. “Oh, and what’s wrong with Sky? She’s really not helping right now.”

“Really?” said Dennis, with a shake of his head and a small laugh. “You are so blind.”

“Sorry?”

“Doesn’t Sky remind you of anyone?” he asked. Ginny mulled over it for a moment.

“Er - Fred and George, I guess,” she said. She ignored the rush of emotions she felt as she spoke Fred’s name aloud.

“Oh, come on,” Dennis said, snorting incredulously. “You! Sky’s been trying to act like you ever since the beginning of last year, and now you’ve stopped being so terribly adventurous and exciting -”

“That’s rich! I’m leading the fucking D.A.!” Ginny cried.

“You know what I mean! You mentioned what happened with Dolohov, but that was impulse. Yeah, you’ve done a few things off-book this year, but you’ve changed! It’s like you’ve given up on winning against You-Know-Who!"

“I’m sorry that half my family got killed!” yelled Ginny. “I’ll just go and forget about that, then, shall I?”

“I’m not saying to - look, Ginny, I’m just telling you what Sky told me -”

“What she told you? So you’ve been gathered up together, having a chat over tea about how I’m not a real Gryffindor anymore?”

“What?” Dennis stared at her, amazed. “No! No one ever said that!”

“Then why were the two of you talking about me?” Ginny demanded, suddenly realizing how irrational she sounded. She didn’t care. She wanted to fight, to yell at someone.

“Because she likes you, you daft twat!” Dennis shouted. Ginny froze, not only because Dennis had actually delivered an insult - however weak - but because she was honestly shocked.

“Sky likes me?” she asked, suddenly unsure. “As in she -”

“Wants to fuck you, yeah.” Sky stood halfway down the stairwell to the girls’ dorms, looking entirely unabashed by the revelation. “I know you’ve got Potter, but I can always hope, eh?”

“Um . . . wow,” Ginny said. “I’m flattered.”

She made it sound more like a question than a statement. Never before had she heard anyone be so blatant about their crush, much less to the person’s face.

“Yeah, it’s not a big deal or anything,” Sky said quickly, and Ginny heard the first bit of vulnerability in her voice.

“Yeah, no, it’s fine,” responded Ginny awkwardly. “Plenty of people have told me they liked me; it’s not that weird. I just didn’t really think that kind of thing would happen in the middle of a war.”

“Aha! So we’re still fighting a war? You think there’s still a chance?”

Ginny could tell that Sky was trying to change the topic, and she readily obliged.

“Course we are,” she said easily. “Why would you think I’ve given up?”

"I don't know. You just seem kind of - er - subdued."

"That would be the dead family," Ginny said, trying for a lighthearted tone as she spoke the words.

Sky looked uncomfortable, but said, “I’m sorry about your family - really, I am! - but maybe you’re trying a bit too hard to grieve, you know?”

“What?” Ginny stared at her, confused.

“I just mean . . . you seem like someone who would be angry if your family died, not sad. Well, of course you'd be sad, but . . . Just, maybe you're trying to mourn because that's what people expect. Maybe what you want to do is fight,” Sky said, looking so uncomfortable that it would have been comedic out of context. Ginny gaped at her. It was the most profound thing that she had ever heard Sky say, and as she thought about it, she realized it made sense. Of course she was sad - part of her family was dead, for Merlin’s sake - but, more than that, she was angry. She wanted revenge.

 

~~~~~~~

 

The D.A. was now just about a quarter of the school, but the Room of Requirement accommodated the expansive group with ease. It had been a week since the detentions started, and it was now Hallowe’en day. The day Harry’s parents had been killed and Voldemort had been reduced to a mere sliver of a person. There had been a feast in the Great Hall, as usual, but it had only been to keep up appearances. The atmosphere had been anything but celebratory.

But in the Room now, after curfew, the house-elves came laden with Pumpkin Juice and Butterbeer and a large variety of sweets. People were smiling and laughing despite the aftermath of the Cruciatus, chatting with friends from other houses joyfully. Ginny looked around, a grin breaking out over her face. She was slightly drunk - not having a very high tolerance for Firewhisky - and she stumbled a bit as she made her way over to a chair. She stood on it unsteadily.

“Hem, hem!” she called out, and someone was so startled that they accidentally threw a hex her way. Thankfully, it missed, and people began to laugh as they realized that it had not been Umbridge speaking. “I propose a toast!” Ginny cried, raising her glass. “To Dumbledore’s Army!”

The crowd answered with a cheer, and others began to call out toasts.

“To the rebellion!”

“To screwing with Umbridge!”

“To house-elves!”

Dennis, who was more inebriated than Ginny, yelled, “To life, to life, l’chaim!” and then burst into hysterical laughter.

Malfoy had been lurking near the back of the room, looking out of place, but he made eye contact with Ginny and raised his glass slightly. From across the room, it was difficult to hear his toast, but Ginny could easily read his lips.

“To Harry fucking Potter,” he said with a rueful sort of grin. Ginny shook her head, laughing, and downed the rest of her Firewhisky. It burned in the pit of her stomach, filling her with purpose.

She wanted to fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dennis has a Squib as his father - Thanfiction's "Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness”  
> "To life, to life, l'chaim!" - Fiddler on the Roof (since Dennis is basically Muggleborn, I figured it made sense for him to make the reference.)


	4. Not Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm terrible at updating. Anyway, this is a short chapter, and the next one won't come for a while, but please enjoy my shitty writing!

Ginny was driven by some sort of manic craze for almost a month, launching attack after attack and strategizing with Luna during their free periods. She hadn’t yet been caught in the act, but she spoke back to Carrow and Dolohov on an almost daily basis, reinforcing their belief that she was behind the D.A.’s “insane grab for power.” She had called a temporary truce with Lara, who seemed quite relieved by even an approximation of forgiveness, and the D.A.’s ranks were still swelling. Sure, things could be better. A lot better. But nothing drastic had happened for a while, and it seemed as if life was finally settling down into a routine that’s weekly torture was near fully counteracted by the rebellion of the D.A.. 

Still, there was that hunger to do more, to really help instead of just running around Hogwarts playing tag with a few Death Eaters. And then came a chance to do just that.

It was past curfew one night, in the Room of Requirement, when Ginny felt the familiar burn of the D.A. Galleon in her pocket. She took it out curiously, unsure of why anyone would be contacting her at such an uneventful time. Other people in the room followed her lead, looking at their coins unwittingly for a moment before gasping with excitement and turning to their friends. Ginny stared at the message for a long time, reading and rereading it so that she knew she had not misunderstood, had not succumbed to the pull of wishful thinking.

Dean and Seamus here. Got a few others too.

They were alive. Ginny had barely managed to comprehend this when the coin burned in her hand again and the letters scrambled and reconfigurated into a new message.

Saw you using coins. If not Death Eaters, tell us.

Ginny frowned. It would be difficult to tell them who she and the others were without handing over information of a sensitive nature. Then an idea sprang to mind, and she quickly began to arrange the letters on her Galleon in response.

Dean, you love Peppermint Toads.

Seamus fought with you when you stole his.

She waited eagerly for their reply and noticed after a moment that everyone else was just as excited, some people cupping their coins in both hands as if holding something very fragile.

Her Galleon heated up again and she looked back quickly.

Please help.

Ah, right. They were on the run.

How? Ginny asked, feeling a sudden pang of fear as she considered the possibility that one of them might be hurt.

Bring us to D.A.. came their response after a few seconds of suspense.

“How?” Ginny asked again, this time of the room at large. They all looked at her in surprise, as if she was the one officially in charge of figuring out how to rescue fugitive ex-D.A. members. She couldn’t remember signing up for that. “Come on! Anyone?”

Silence for a minute, then:

“Is there a rendezvous point that you could refer to without actually saying where it is?” Lara said slowly. Ginny met her gaze, thinking.

“Er . . . yeah! Hagrid’s pumpkin patch! Or at least it used to be Hagrid’s,” she added somberly.

“Okay, that could work,” Lara muttered, seemingly to herself. “Of course, they’d have to Apparate outside of school grounds and walk in, but that sounds doable.”

“Sorry, what is this we’re doing?” enquired Ginny with mock politeness, breaking through the verbal train of thought. 

Lara grinned and looked over at Malfoy.

“How would you feel about getting some roommates?” she asked him.

 

~~~~~~~

 

“Just be careful and make sure that it’s these two boys,” Ginny told the house-elves, displaying a picture of Ron with his dormmates and pointing out Dean and Seamus on the left. “You can trust them.”

“Of course, missus. We is happy to be of help,” an elf named Sprilly said, indeed looking quite pleased.

“Yeah. Sure,” Ginny said, wondering why she felt as if she were doing the elves a favor.

Her Galleon burned, and she checked it immediately.

We’re there. Hurry.

“Go!” she said hastily, stowing away the coin and turning back to Sprilly and the others. Several loud cracks resounded, and the elves disappeared before her. 

Ginny waited impatiently for what was, in retrospect, probably a minute at most. Then Sprilly appeared again, two young wizards clinging onto her. As they straightened up and looked around, Ginny’s breath caught in her throat. 

Dean was both taller and thinner than the last time she had seen him, and she was sure that the scar on his cheek had not been there before. Seamus looked as if he hadn’t slept in weeks, and he was carrying his arm in an awkward way that did not bode well. But when he noticed her standing there, he grinned roguishly, looking for all the world as if he had just gotten away with charming a spider into Ron’s bed.

Ginny stared in amazement. They really were alive. 

More cracks echoed in the Room, and familiar faces appeared. There were at least ten people, but Ginny’s attention was redirected from them when the last crack sounded and a new pair materialized.

It was the hair that she noticed first. An unmistakable mess of bushy brown. And then, next to that . . . It was so very ginger that it couldn’t not be a Weasley’s.

There was a moment of nothingness, of sheer silence.

Then Ron straightened up and found Ginny’s gaze. He gave an odd sort of chuckle of relief and smiled.

“Hey,” he said. Ginny walked towards him slowly, as if in a dream.

“Ron?” she said cautiously.

“Yeah,” he said, grinning that stupid, dopey grin of his. “Who else?”

“You’re okay,” Ginny managed to say.

“Well, I haven’t really been having the time of my life -” Hermione elbowed him “- but yeah, I reckon I could be worse.”

“But . . . What if someone saw you come into the school grounds? You’re Undesirable No. 2 - and Hermione, you’re No. 1! They’ll have recognized you! What if they’re contacting -”

“Gin,” Ron interrupted, “we know. We Stunned all the Death Eaters at the gate before they even realized anyone was there.” he paused. “By the way, Disillusionment Charms don’t work here anymore.”

“I’ve noticed,” Ginny said dryly.

“Have you been trying to Disillusion yourself?” asked Hermione shrewdly.

Ginny snorted. “You didn’t really expect me to stick to the rules, did you?”

“I held out hope,” Hermione responded, smiling.

“Oh, as if you didn’t break every one of Umbridge’s educational decrees!” Ginny said.

“I’ll have you know that I was a Prefect!” Hermione replied haughtily. Ginny and Ron both laughed.

“I missed you so much,” Ginny said after a moment, mainly addressing Ron.

“Yeah,” he agreed articulately.

“Why . . . why didn’t you take me with you?” Ginny asked quietly, voicing the question that she had pondered over all summer.

“I knew that you would - look, Dad probably would have been arrested - or worse - and if they found you with us . . .” Ron trailed off.

“If they found me with you what?” demanded Ginny. “They’d kill me? Because honestly, I think they’re about a step away from doing that here. And you could have taken Dad on the run, too, you know! And George! But you just left us all, right when we needed you!”

“It’s not like it’s been easy on me!” cried Ron defensively. “Them dying and all.”

“Was it as hard on you that Mum died as it was on Dad? And how d’you think George has been coping?” Ginny asked angrily. Ron looked at her helplessly.

“I just wanted to protect you,” he said. He took a deep breath and added, softly, “I’m sorry.”

Ginny felt tears well to her eyes, although she wasn’t quite sure why.

“Just don’t leave me behind again, okay?” she said, sniffling.

“Promise,” Ron said. Ginny shook her head, crying, and hugged her youngest brother close to her, burying her face in his shoulder.

“You’re such an idiot,” she mumbled into the fabric of his shirt.

 

~~~~~~~

 

“You’re not coming,” Ginny said flatly, glaring at them in her best Molly Weasley impression.

“I’m not letting you go alone,” said Ron, undeterred. “Someone should be with you out there to protect you!”

Ginny scoffed.

“I don’t need protecting, Ron. And besides, Sky will be with me.”

“Maybe Ginny’s right,” Hermione said a bit regretfully. “She’s done this plenty of times without us.”

“She could get hurt!” protested Ron. “There’s going to be a time when something goes wrong and she gets caught!”

“Don’t you think that she’d be in a lot more trouble if she was caught with two fugitives from the Ministry?” asked Hermione carefully.

“She -” Ginny cut in angrily “- is right here and doesn’t need help from anyone. Besides, I snuck out last night without telling you two - I knew you would do this! - and I charmed Dolohov’s chair to slide away from him and left some Dung Bombs in his desk. I didn’t get caught then!”

Seamus, who had been eavesdropping, chuckled appreciatively before catching Ron’s eye and turning away.

“Look, if I get caught . . . Well, I’ll live. If you get caught, you definitely won’t,” Ginny said, her anger fading as she recalled all the sleepless nights over the summer when she had wondered whether her brother was still out there somewhere, struggling to survive.

Ron looked like he wanted to keep arguing, but Hermione placed a hand on his arm and gave him a stern look. He faltered and then gave a slight nod of resignation.

Seamus coughed in a way that sounded suspiciously like the word “whipped.”

“Well, I’m off to vandalize the school,” Ginny said with surprising cheer, satisfied that she had won the argument. “You be good and don’t stay up too late.”

She left before Ron could throttle her, smiling a bit at the restoration of an almost forgotten pastime: annoying her brother. Sky followed her from the Room, and together they walked into the darkened seventh floor hallway.

 

~~~~~~~

 

The worst part wasn’t that they were running from Death Eaters who would surely punish them in an excruciating fashion. Nor was it that as soon as their inevitable capture occurred, they would become confirmed members of the D.A.. No, the worst part was that Ron had been right.

This night of all nights! thought Ginny angrily. It couldn’t have waited until Ron stopped being such a prat about all this, could it?

She threw a spell out behind her, not entirely conscious of what exactly she was casting, and not taking the time to discover if it actually hit someone. Sky was a few steps ahead of her, breathing heavily as she ran.

A retaliatory curse whistled past Ginny’s right ear and chipped off a piece of the wall next to her.

Fuck.

She tried to force her legs to move faster, ignoring the sting of sweat in her eyes. She felt a brief, foolish hope that they might outrun their pursuers - it was tactical idiocy to have their backs to their enemies, but they hadn’t been hit yet - when Sky rounded the next corner and gave a yelp of surprise. Ginny skidded into the other girl’s back before seeing several members of the Inquisitorial Squad standing with their wands out.

Fuck.

“Stupefy!” she yelled, throwing the jinx at one of the three Slytherins. He collapsed without a fight, and Sky dropped another of them with the same spell. Then Dolohov rounded the corner, closely followed by a panting Alecto.

“We’ve got ‘em,” the latter cried with glee, and Ginny turned her wand on the so-called professors while Sky continued to stare down the remaining I.S. member.

“Weasley. What a surprise,” Dolohov said, and Ginny wondered for a moment if he somehow remembered the last time they’d had a show-down. He had lost then, but it didn’t seem as if McGonagall was about to pop out from around a corner and serve an ex machina function again.

“Professor! I didn’t realize it was you! I’m terribly sorry, I didn’t keep track of the time. I didn’t know it was past curfew,” Ginny said, forcing her facial expression to morph into a parody of innocence. Lying was fruitless of course, and her sudden change in attitude from rebellious to apologetic could not very well go unnoticed, but she felt obligated to stall for time in any way conceivable.

The I.S. member snorted disbelievingly, and Ginny turned to glare at him, identifying him as Harper. Sky looked about ready to throw a reducto at him and just disintegrate the prick, but Ginny placed a warning hand on her arm.

“Is that so?” asked Dolohov, his voice cold. Ginny turned back to him, and he took a step towards her. “Because if you were truly innocent, I imagine your wand would be lowered.”

Ginny hesitated. He already knew she was lying, but at least if she surrendered she wouldn’t have to engage in some hopeless duel that was sure to get her injured. Then again, she had never been one for giving in.

She was saved from making a decision when Sky decided to take matters into her own hands and explode a section of the wall.

“Run!” Sky yelled, bowling over Harper as she sprinted forwards. Alecto - or perhaps it was Dolohov - gave a cry as stone collapsed in on them, and Ginny began to run again as instinct prompted her to move. It took about five seconds for the Death Eaters to dispel the fallen stone and Stun both Ginny and Sky, but as the force of the spell combined with Ginny’s momentum threw her into the wall, she couldn’t help but feel as if it had been worth it. Resisting almost always was. It was the message more than the physical act that left its mark on people, and what better way to propagate the D.A. than to showcase its resistance by getting caught? Of course, it could also serve to scare people off. And it might make Ginny and Sky’s social lives diminish somewhat. And they’d be tortured. But the silver lining was always important, and in that moment, Ginny decided to cling to whatever light she could find.

Then her head hit cold, hard stone, and the world turned black.

 

~~~~~~~

 

Suffice it to say that Ron had not been happy. He had, at first, been torn between wanting to murder Ginny and wanting to murder Alecto and Dolohov. He had soon come to the conclusion that both was the best option. Hermione, on the other hand, was much more sympathetic to Ginny’s plight, although she still took every chance possible to reprimand her recklessness. Sky had bounced back quickly enough during her recovery, which surprised everyone but Lara, and the D.A. was still going strong.

Ginny was, if anything, more audacious than ever, and with Christmas nearly upon Hogwarts, she was trying to prepare something especially rebellious.

“Any ideas?” she asked the members of the D.A. one night, eyes roaming over the weary but eager faces of her friends. “Anything to mess with Umbridge, maybe?”

“What if we just give it a rest?” someone called out hesitantly. “It’s the holidays. Can we not attack other people, just for once?”

“The Death Eaters don’t take days off,” Ginny said authoritatively. “If you don’t want to participate, that’s fine by me.”

But other people were clamoring in agreement with the unknown kid, muttering amongst themselves about stopping the violence and a Christmas truce. Ginny paused, unsure of herself. She had been gathering steam for weeks now, and she didn’t feel ready to grind to a halt for the holidays, but she also wouldn’t be able to pull off any grand scale plans without a good deal of help. Her eyes met Hermione’s, pleading, and the other girl gave her an exasperated look.

Fine, she mouthed, rising to her feet.

“Everyone, quiet down!” Hermione called, and all heads swiveled to face her. She, Ron, and the other rescued fugitives had all been enjoying a certain respect, bordering on reverence, from most of the D.A. members. “We don’t have to fight, okay? We can . . . er - instead of hurting our enemies, we can do something that benefits ourselves.”

Ginny was rather confused on the meaning of that sentence, but Hermione seemed to have come to the end of her train of thought and did not elaborate.

“So . . . do you guys have any ideas?” Hermione asked awkwardly, clearly not having had enough time to plan this out.

“What about saving the others?” Dean said slowly, after a pause had filled the room with silence. “The people who weren’t with us when we came here. Neville could still be out there.”

“You were with Neville?” Ginny interrupted, surprised.

“Yeah. He wanted to go save Harry, the loyal bastard, but we said we needed more time to prepare. Even Ron agreed. The morning after we decided that, we woke up and Neville was gone. Never heard what happened to him, and I dunno if he’s even got his Galleon with him.”

“If he did, he doesn’t anymore,” Lara said gloomily. “He would have come to the rendezvous when we sent the message.”

“That’s what we think too. The Death Eaters probably got him,” Seamus said.

“Then we have to save him!” Ginny exclaimed. Everyone stared at her for what seemed to be an eternity.

“That would be incredibly dangerous,” said a seventh year Ravenclaw at last, speaking slowly as if explaining something to a toddler. “And we don’t even know where he is.”

“Well, I’m with her!” Sky interjected, getting to her feet in a movement that was dramatized to Shakespearean levels. Lara rolled her eyes but stood as well. Most people in the room began to follow suit before Hermione stepped in and entirely ruined the mood.

“You’re not going anywhere,” she told Ginny. “None of you are. You’re all still in school, for Merlin’s sake! And what if someone noticed that you were gone? You need to show up to your classes!”

“They do. But we don’t,” Ron said, meeting Hermione’s glare steadily. “You’re right. They can’t leave without their absence being noticed. We can.”

“Wait a second -” Ginny started, but Seamus cut her off.

“Alright, mate. I’m ready when you are,” he said, somewhat excitedly.

“Me too,” said Dean.

“And me,” supplied Terry Boot.

“Alright,” Hermione said after a moment. “For Neville. But we need to find him before we do anything else.”

Ron pulled a small object from his pocket, and Ginny frowned in confusion as she recognized it as his Deluminator. Hermione seemed to understand, however.

“Whose greatest desire would it be to find Neville?” she muttered to herself. 

Ginny blinked.

“Mine,” Luna said unexpectedly, gazing at Hermione in her serene, owlish way.

“Come again?” said Ron, startled. “You . . . you don’t fancy him, do you?”

“No, I don’t really think I do,” Luna responded calmly. “But I do love my friends, and I love seeing them happy.”

“Alright then,” Hermione said, cutting through the awkward tension in the air as she handed Luna the Deluminator. “Click it,” she prompted.

Luna did as she was told and gasped in wonder as a small ball of moving light rose from the object. It traveled towards her, and she watched without fear as it was absorbed into her chest. Ginny stared in absolute bemusement.

“Do you know where to go?” urged Ron. Luna nodded slowly. “Do you know the name of the place or do you just . . . know?”

“I recognize it,” Luna said, and Ginny felt a surge of dread at her change in tone. “It’s Malfoy Manor.”

There was a pause as everyone processed this information.

“Alright, then let’s go,” Seamus said finally.

“It would help if we brought along someone who knows the house,” Hermione said, and Ginny turned to follow her line of sight, only to see Draco, frozen in place at the back of the room.

“What?” he croaked helplessly.

“We need your help, Malfoy,” Hermione said, somehow managing not to choke on the words.

“What?” he asked again, looking too frightened to formulate a different thought.

“After everything we’ve done to help you, you git!” Ron cried indignantly, striding forwards and grabbing Malfoy by the front of his shirt. “You’re coming with us, you little shit, and you’re going to do everything you can to help us save Neville. Understood?”

Hermione pried Ron away from Draco, who had put up no resistance and still wasn’t moving.

“Malfoy,” Lara said, touching his arm gently. He turned to look at her, his eyes wild like a cornered animal’s. “Do something good for once. You can change, you know.”

“I know,” he said softly, “but I’m scared.”

Lara leaned closer to him, as if she were imparting some secret of great value.

“Gryffindors get scared too,” she said quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm planning on writing the next chapter from Draco's perspective, but if you'd rather it be Ron, Hermione, Seamus, or Dean's, just comment and I can do that. Also, the chapter title is a reference to AVPM, in case anyone was wondering.

**Author's Note:**

> I know that canonically speaking Dennis is a Muggleborn, but there are too few canon characters that are younger than Harry, so I’ve changed that for the purpose of the story.


End file.
